Devil's Due
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: Roy and Johnny inadvertantly meet two Bay City detectives named Starsky and Hutch and get themselves entangled in a web of intrigue when a criminal kidnaps the child of one of their patients.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Sixteen

16. Devil's Due Season Two- Episode 16 Short summary-  
Roy and Johnny inadvertantly meet two Bay City detectives named Starsky and Hutch and get themselves entangled in a web of intrigue when a criminal kidnaps the child of one of their patients.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
The gang gets antsy after forty eight hours and no runs. Roy entertains a coffee OD'd Johnny on a supply run to Rampart and they visit with Adam-12.  
Nearby, Detectives Dave Starsky and Ken Hutchinson chase a gunman down an alley and find an assault victim battered by him. Squad 51 responds.  
The detectives learn the injured woman's young son is being held hostage by the criminal somewhere in the neighborhood. Zebra Three runs escort to the woman's Mayfair on the way to Rampart, playing chicken with a train to speed up the transport. A clue to the kidnapper's whereabouts materializes from what Roy and Johnny overhear during the mother's treatment. Starsky and Hutch go check out her residence for more leads.  
Station 51 is assigned to medical standby during the hostage standoff that results. The two Bay City detectives pose as firefighters with the gang and undercover, they infiltrate the gunman beseiged business tower along with the night suave informant, Huggy Bear. They discover the missing boy in the power cut building, and a bomb. Fleeing, by hand lowering an elevator down its descent shaft, everyone braces for its detonation. It comes and the elevator plummets, carrying them down into a fire sprinkler filled sub-basement. On search, a frantic Stanley and fire crews find the trapped bunch. Chet Kelly revives a nearly drown David Starsky. Later, they all visit the recovering assaulted mom and child pair and return heirlooms the kidnapper stole to finance his sniper and kidnapping incident.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Sixteen..

Devil's Due Debut Launch: 1 November 2004.

From : Champagne Scott Sent : Wednesday, November 3, 2004 6:35 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Cooped Up Cage Jitters..

"Man, I am soooo bored.." sighed Johnny Gage as he emptied the waste paper basket in the wire bin onto the couch for the fourteenth time, to retrieve the wadded up paper balls that he had been arching into it from various distances around the rec room.

He chose a place from over by the strategies chalk board as his next launching point. As usual, Bonnie, the Boston Terrier watched Gage with intense doggy puzzlement, half torn between trying to chase the flying overhand tosses, or not to.

"Careful, Johnny." said Roy DeSoto, intently reading the stocks section of the newspaper. "You just may jinx us." he said rubbing his nose. The fair haired paramedic looked up when Marco Lopez set another full mug of coffee down in front of him. "Thanks, Marco."

"How can I jinx us? The rain's already doing that for us.." Gage complained, finally missing a basket. He jerked a restless head out the window where the blinds were retracted to let in some feeble gray tinged daylight to offset the flourescent bulbs in the ceiling to show the others, that the steady downpour that had started when their weekend began, was still with them.

Chet Kelly ambled into the rec room, still yawning from a short nap that had turned surprisingly into a long one. He was still disoriented and rumpled. "Ack,...how many tones calls did I miss? I woke up and I found you guys were gone and the beds were already made."

Mike Stoker calmly intercepted Chet's trajectory toward the coffee pot on the stove in the kitchen and redirected him before he cracked a sleepy shoulder into the wall by the payphones. "A big fat zero, Chet.  
Open your eyes before you give Roy and Johnny something to do, all right? Your higher motor skills are still out to lunch."

Chet got to the stove safely, then he peered at his watch, eyeballing the time. "Holy cow. Five pm Saturday? I slept for fifteen hours?!"

"Yep. And we enjoyed every minute of the resulting peace and quiet,  
too." said Johnny, as he kept up his basket making shots with the paper wads.

"It wasn't for that full time, Chet. I admit I snuck in there around one last night to feel for a pulse on ya. You were lying so still that you were scaring Bonnie.." Roy admitted.

"Arf!" said the diminuitive Boston. She caterwauled a few happy whines and then she skidded across the floor on slippery running claws to go trapse around Kelly's stocking socked feet in an enthusiastic welcome.

"Geesh, you think Bonnie thought I was away forever, man." said Kelly,  
rubbing the sleepers out of his eyes.

"Wish it had been forever, Chet. That'd make my working life just a bit more tolerable." Johnny grinned, looking at the other guys for brownie points.

No one bothered to participate.

"Oh, ha ha, Gage. Very funny. I won't even go into how I feel about having you as a working bud." said Kelly, gulping his coffee down despite its boiling temperature in order to wake up faster.

"Kelly! Where are your shoes?!" admonished Cap, arriving from the vehicle bay with his journal log book. Coffee was on his mind. For he stole Roy's outright and started sipping while he glared at Chet's feet.

"Uh,.." he said looking around sleepily, " Ehheh. Right where I left em?"  
he replied meekly.

"Go put them on. Then its another session with the manikin for all of us in ten minutes.." Hank frowned. Then he turned on his heels and retreated back into his office.

Gage gave up the shooting game and pulled up a chair from the table, reversed it, and then sat down on its back edge with his feet on the seat support. He studied the direction Cap had gone analytically, not smiling. "Has he always been such a task master during slow shifts?"

"Yes.." replied Marco, Chet, Roy, and Stoker, all at the same time.

Even Bonnie barked.

"Count your blessings, Johnny boy. We could be cleaning every inch of the station instead." Marco admitted.

"Nah, we did that yesterday. Remember?" Chet said. "Or was that the day before?" Kelly frowned, remembering his long coma of a nap.

Johnny didn't hear them.  
"We've retrieved that Annie from the roof, under the engine, we worked her code, splinted every limb, probed every inch of her, and now he wants us to run another scenario? What have we got left to do now?"

"An OB case.." supplied Roy, not looking up from his newspaper.

"Ohh ho.. lucky us.. Let's hope it's just another obstructed airway with a broken neck scenario or maybe even a femur fracture exercise." Gage said unenthusiastically, setting his chin onto a palm. "I hate getting powder on my hands from pulling that doll baby free."

Still ansy, he got up and walked over to the payphone. He picked up the receiver, listened on the line for a moment. Then he hung up and walked back to sit back down at the table.

"What'd do that for?" asked Chet.

"Just...checking for a dial tone. You know how these winter rains sometimes knock out a repeater or broadcast tower.  
If I didn't hear one, we'd have the perfect reason for why we've been so dead on business for the last past two days."

"A repeater failure wouldn't effect a payphone, Johnny."  
said Roy. "They're hard wired underground and wouldn't be effected by it."

Johnny got defensive because he was embarrassed that his telecommunications knowledge wasn't as good as Roy's.  
"Well then how ELSE do you explain the fact that we haven't gotten a single run, for anybody, since early Friday morning?"

Roy lowered his paper and grinned. "The law of averages..."  
he said, squinting meaningfully. "The means balance out the extremes eventually."

Johnny's face twisted in incomprehension that made the other guys chuckle from whereever they were.

Gage scooped up Bonnie and started massaging her head for some moral support. But the Boston Terrier wormed her way out of his grip to go follow Chet on his actively searching mission to relocate his shoes.

"Gage, did you-?" Kelly asked from where he was checking out the space underneath the leather couch.

"I didn't touch your shoes. How could I? They were on your feet the whole time you were sleeping."  
Gage answered.

"They were? Oh, ok. Then I think I know where they are now then. Thanks, pal." and he jogged out of the kitchen.

Lopez said, "You actually helped Chet out of a bind? What's the matter with you, Johnny, you sick or something?"

"Yeah, I'm sick. I'm sick and tired of being cooped up in this joint for forty eight straight hours with absolutely nothing better to do. Especially with you guys. It's worse than a high school lock in party."

"Welll.. " commented Roy. "You could always stop drinking coffee.  
So far you've inhaled three whole pots just by yourself in a little under three hours. That might explain the feelings of claustrophobia and anxiety you're suffering."

"Roy,.." complained Johnny. "You're such a.......a.... paramedic sometimes, you know that?" Gage said pointed an animated finger at his quiet partner.

"All true. And you're such an interesting case study in the mis-  
management of a potentially healthy lifestyle that I just haveta keep right on analyzing ya." DeSoto said, leaning back and stretching in his chair.

"Well, stop it. If and when I do get addicted to caffeine, I'll be the first person to let ya know about it."

"You just did, with all that pacing and abundant running commentary.  
Why else would you have such a nasty track record when it comes to your on the job injuries frequency rate?" debated DeSoto easily.

"You know, I think I'm gonna go take the squad into Rampart on a supply run. By myself.." Gage said, leaving the kitchen area.

"What about that session with Annie the manikin coming up?!" Stoker needled, thoroughly enjoying the sniping banter.

"She can go stuff herself!" came Gage's voice out of the vehicle bay.

He almost collided with Chet, coming back towards the kitchen replete in his newly found squeaky shoes.

Roy got up with a sigh and followed after his partner so that they wouldn't get separated. "I'd better go with him. He might get strange ideas and want to drive the squad or something."

"Nothing wrong with that. Go ahead and let him. Then when he plows you two into a telephone pole, that'd give the rest of us guys an engine run to go on." Chet said mildly.

"I'd rather let Annie drive.." Roy said plainly, the smile wiping off his face as he accented the statement with a finger jamming Chet's chest.

"Better hurry up, Roy.. I think I hear the door opening up."  
Marco offered helpfully.

Roy got into the squad with Johnny, passing by Cap's closed office door without incident or interception from him. He decided to not announce their supply run to L.A. until they were out of sight of the station. He turned the wheel of the rescue truck into the slightly lighter rain soaked western sky, towards Torrance and Rampart, and they drove off together.

Roy chuckled. "That was brilliant, Johnny.. I knew acting irritated and wired loudly enough would cause Cap to let us leave to go on an unnecessary supply run."

"I wasn't acting.." Johnny said through pursed lips.

Roy began to watch Johnny more than he did the road the whole trip into the ER.

He only hoped that happenings there would keep Johnny entertained long enough to survive his accessive java intake symptomology. ::A huge fire will dry him out like a prune if he doesn't come down from it before we get a call for one.:: he thought.

He decided to temper Johnny's jitters against the only person who could tame them. On Dixie.

-----------------------------------------------------

Photo: A bored Roy in closeup.

Photo: Stoker and Marco playing chess.

Photo: Gage and DeSoto in a chess war with Chet watching from the TV counter.

Photo: Cap lecturing Roy and Johnny at the veggie sink.

Photo: A resusciAnnie manikin.

Photo: Bonnie the Boston Terrier closeup.

Photo: The squad rolling out from the POV of the engine.

*  
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:08:01 +0000 (GMT) From: "Katherine Bird" .uk Subject: The Other Department...

Dixie McCall sized up Johnny Gage in about two seconds when they were still over thirty feet away from the Emergency Room front desk. She leaned over to the two guests visiting with her and mumbled. "Ok,  
you two officers are looking for something to do, right? How about keeping a couple of bored firemen out of my hair while I get some charting done? That way, I won't have both public service departments breathing down my neck at the same time." she said to her charming companions. "The worst of this pair is gonna be from the dark haired one. I don't have to be a doctor to know that he's been sucking down the Sumatran Dark a little too much lately."

Reed chuckled, glancing back at his partner Malloy. "He sounds like the Sarge on slow days, Dixie. What's his name?"

"Johnny Gage, Jim. Just get ready. He'll be an earful.  
Excuse me..." the demure nurse said, turning her back and pretending to organize the rescue reel to reel recordings next to the pharmaceutical cupboard.

"Howdy, fellas." said Pete Malloy to the two approaching paramedic firemen. He waved a greeting with the antennae of his HT which looked very much like the ones Roy and Johnny carried with them, dangled around their jacketted wrists.

Gage actually turned a circle in his tracks, thinking the dark uniformed police officer was speaking to someone else. "Oh, you mean us, hi officer. Uh, officers.." he amended, dipping his head. "How are the streets faring today?"

Roy deviated his arrival time and went over to the chrome drinking fountain alcove for a sip of cold water.

"We've been absolutely hopping, hose jockey." Reed lied. "Please, call me Jim. This is my partner Pete. How are the firecalls going today?"

Johnny sighed, trying to look over the two officer shoulders to get Dixie's attention. "They aren't. We haven't heard a peep over the intercom except for a wakeup call test, since Friday night. I'm Johnny Gage and that camel sucking down the water over there is Roy DeSoto. We're both paramedics with th--"

"We know. We get to clean up after you folks all the time."  
Pete beamed.

Johnny didn't quite know how to take that comment so he changed the subject. "Hi Dix.." he said, arcing up onto his toes to see her better.

Malloy and Reed tightened the gap between their shoulders so Johnny wouldn't be able to nudge through.

Gage frowned and couldn't figure out why he was doing so.

Roy immediately caught on and he started to laugh. "Johnny.  
Don't you recognize a couple of body guards when you see them? Jim and Pete are running interference.."

"Oh, really.." Johnny said, his voice getting a little less cordial.

"Yes, really." said Dixie, turning around with an empty I.V. box full of sound recorded clear plastic tape reels. "Thanks Pete.  
Thanks Jim, for trying. But I'll handle him from here."

"No problem. Thanks for the coffee, ma'am. It went down swell."  
said Jim. "We gotta go. We're on a break from a stake out assignment. A pair of detectives are covering for us while we're on lunch."

"No kidding." Roy said. "Are you gonna get the bad guy?"

"Yeah, mostly likely before sundown. Snipers usually give up by then because of poor target visibility." replied Pete.

"Snipers?!" jolted Johnny. "We didn't hear anything about a shooting spree going on..."

"That's because we've been very good at not alarming the general public about this character. So far, he's only taken a couple of pot shots at our squad car lights and a few park squirrels. No one's been hurt yet." Jim Reed answered Gage.

"Ooo, stay safe out there guys." said McCall. "And give these donuts to those two covering for you. I can't stand police types who decide their work's more important than their stomachs."  
she said, shoving over a box of them across the desk counter.  
Johnny made a grab for the lid but Dixie slapped his hand away.  
"Ah, ah ah. You two already had your lunch."

"How can you tell?" asked Roy mildly.

"Johnny's got mustard on his chin and you still have potato chip salt on your shirt." she grinned, handing over the pastries to the Adam-12 pair. "See ya fellas.."

"Later, Dix.." they replied, walking out the ER door entrance to return to their beat.

Roy and Gage got the chills. "Now I know why I became a fireman."  
DeSoto said, refusing Dixie's silent offer of coffee.

"Oh? Why's that?" asked the frosted bunned nurse.

"Police work's just far too dangerous to monkey with. Joanne made me promise years ago that I'd never consider becoming one."

"Now firefighting's just as dangerous as police work, Roy." said Gage.

"Not really. At least with firefighting. You can see the danger coming and can avoid it." said Roy.

"Usually." Johnny agreed finally.

"Not in your case, Johnny Gage." replied Dixie, wide eyed."You've been banged up what? Six times already this past year. And I'm not counting the monkey virus nor that snake bite. Those were unavoidable consequences."

"In who's book, Dix?" Roy teased. "Not misplacing an HT could've prevented that bite and wearing a pair of rubber gloves could have made all the difference in the world whether or not that contagion took a hold."

"Now, Roy. Don't start in with that scene safety first and that body substance isolation lecture again with all that unnecessary glove wearing and stuff. I tell ya, adding those as permanent changes to our paramedic protocols is never gonna wash. I mean, that's like saying the art of mouth to mouth resuscitation's gonna become passe. Not in a million--"

"Don't you get sick of getting all sticky and soiled head to toe on runs all the time?" Roy said, folding his arms over his elbows mildly in conversation.

"Well, yeah, sometimes it gets a little annoying changing out uniforms so often. I only got four sets.." he grunted in consternation.

"This topic of conversation's absolutely rivetting gentlemen, but I've got charts stacking up higher than my-"

"Sure, Dix. We were just leaving.." Roy said, grabbing Johnny's arm.  
"We only wanted an excuse to get out of the station for a while. Cabin fever don't you know." he grinned toothily.

Gage protested the whole way back to the squad. "Now, Roy. We could've at least grabbed a cup of coffee.." he growled. "That wasn't polite leaving her in the lurch like that."

"She wanted us to, Johnny. Didn't you get any of the hints thrown our way?"

"Uh, what hints? I'm so wired I'm surprised I'm even seeing straight."  
Johnny coughed.

"Then aren't you glad I got us out here again." Roy said, opening the door for his partner and guiding his back inside the squad. "Coffee's the last thing you need."

"Well, how about a chili dog at Max's? I'm starving.." Johnny said, putting on his helmet.

"Max's it is.." Roy conceded, getting behind the wheel. "You're paying."

"Why am I paying? I thought I bought lunch for us both last time!"

"No you didn't. Your forgot your wallet at home. I-It ..it was the same morning you broke both your shoelaces.." DeSoto said, thrusting a finger out in a telling gesture.

"Oh, yeah. Last Thursday. I always remember when I break my shoelaces."

"So do I. Because I'm the one who always has to hand ya some replacements."  
Roy complained. "Geesh, I'm getting jittery and I haven't even had more than ONE cup of coffee.."

"Want me to drive then?" Johnny said obliviously.

"No."

"Then buy us lunch and I'll shut up. Both actions'll be good for your nerves."  
he told Roy, closing the maneuvering trap, that he'd been calculating and laying down to spring upon DeSoto, all the way to Rampart.

Roy sighed a sigh of long suffering, feeling black. "All right. But I get a little peace and quiet starting right--"

Beep! Beep! Beep!  
##Squad 51. Stand by for a response. L.A. P.D. requests paramedic backup at the corner of La Monte and Shelby. Details to follow en route.##

"Here we go!" hooted Johnny. "And we got one before the engine! I win that bet, too. The guys haveta fix the dinner chow for us now and not the other way around. Wa...Hoo."

"Wait a minute! Johnny, you got me involved in a chore bet that I didn't even know about?"

Johnny nodded animatedly, eyes twinkled and bright.  
"And we won. Doesn't it feel great?"

DeSoto glared at him for long seconds and then he let out a long resigned sigh. "Silence is golden, huh.." Roy mumbled to himself as he turned the squad around from the hospital pull up and flicked on the red lights over their heads. "Why am I the only one who treasures that?"

"What?"

"Nothing. Put your helmet on."

"Oh. ok." said Johnny a little too fast and it took a few tries for him to fasten on the chin strap properly.

"You sure you don't need some Narcan or something?" Roy asked aloud.

Johnny gave him a dirty look. "I'm fine. This adrenaline rush I got from finally getting a call'll burn off all the coffee. Thanks for caring about me, pally. " he said sarcastically. "But no thanks."  
"Suit yourself. And I'm going to be starting any I.V.s that might come up so ya won't be in danger of poking yourself."

"Fine." and Johnny clammed up, reaching for the notepad to scribble down the tenative neighborhood address they needed to reach. "I'll do the easy stuff just to please ya and to keep Cap on an even keel about me sneaking us off like this. He can't yell if I don't do anything wrong."

"And they say never to say MacBeth right before a performance."  
whispered Roy.

-

Dave was running full tilt, as fast as his blue and white Adidas could carry him after the man running away from him. His Smith and Wesson 39- 9mm was out and pointed up to the sky in his right hand as he pounded the alley he was chasing through.

Ken had the red unmarked car with the red flashing dome light on top speeding right on his heels.

"Metford! Give it up! We got ya surrounded!" Dave bellowed around painful sucking gasps of air that he pumped in and out of his chest as he leaped over the trash in his way and around obstacles.

"Never copper!" said the man, turning and firing back from behind a telephone pole.

Ken angled the car sideways and flung open a car door for his partner to hide behind as the bullets riccocheted off the tin garbage cans around them.

Three shots from the sniper ex con spidered the windshield, making Ken duck and swear. "Oh, man..! Not another window bill!"

"It could've been the paint job, buddy boy. Quit complaining."  
said Dave to Ken as he curled up behind the car door. "Thanks for getting me some cover."

"I wouldn't've had to if you hadn't gone off after the guy when you knew he was armed to the hilt." spat Ken.

"Yeah, but that was only because I know Metford likes taking hostages. We're already too near the college campus to make me comfortable."

"If Metford was gonna take pot shots at the students, he would've done so already, partner. Not just singed the hair off a few squirrels."

"Yeah well I don't like anything parallelling up to the Watch Tower Massacre of 1970. That day still leaves a real bad taste in my mouth."  
Dave shored up a line of sight across the open window rim of the door with a primal scream of frustration and he let loose a volley of shots that soon ended those winging back at them. He thought he heard the sound of a body hitting concrete. "Got him!"

"Get in and I'll get us there." shouted Ken, peeling the rubber of the red car in a squeal.

Dave dove into the front seat and slammed the door shut as Ken smashed over a rack of garbage cans to get them there faster.

Ken and Dave both threw the dome flashing car into park and dashed out of the car after divesting it of her keys in the direction they thought their shooter had gone in.

Dave puffed to a halt and went instantly pale as he neared the spot that had echoed the sound of collapse they had both heard.  
"Oh, g*d, no." he groaned, rushing forward to crouch over someone lying in the scraps of paper and newsprint littering the alleyway.

It was a woman, with a fresh gush of blood coursing down her left temple.

He dropped his gun in disgust after engaging its safety to reach gingerly for the young woman's carotid while Ken jogged a careful check around them looking for Metford.

"He got away. D*mm*t!" Ken swore. Then he turned to crouch near his shaking partner.

"I shot her, Hutch. Ohmygod." said the curly haired detective.

"Who's to say that's a gunshot wound, Starsky? Quit snowballing things. This girl was around the corner so how could your shots've been anywhere near enough to score on her? Metford could have done it just to get us to stop chasing him."

"There's enough metal around here t--"

"Shh.. Is she breathing?" Hutch asked, reaching for the still woman's wrist.

"Uh,.."

"Tip her head back, without jarring her neck and have a listen. I'll go call for an ambulance. She's still alive. Do you hear me Starsky?  
She's alive. Do what you can to help her." Ken Hutchinson shouted.

Kenneth leaped toward the white striped tomato Gran Torino and snatched up the radio mic. "Zebra 3. Zebra 3 to Headquarters. We've a woman down in the alley at...." he looked around for roadsigns."...6th and Parsons. Over. We've lost Metford! Roll all units in a point by point grid search for him immediately!"

Nearly under the sheltering bumper of the white striped red orange car,  
the other plain clothes detective was almost crying.  
"Sweety? Can you hear me? Hang in there. We've got help on the way. Just hold on. I've got you." begged a very frightened David Starsky.

Starsky felt a very poor answering gasp brush his cheek out of the girl's lips and he gripped her head even tighter when an unnatural blue shade began covering her face.

"No..don't die on me, miss. Come on.." and he began to give her fast breaths mouth to mouth to turn back some of the lifeless coloring he saw in her skin and eyes. "Hutch! Get down here and help me stop all this scalp bleeding. She's not trying to breathe for me anymore."

It wasn't long before Squad 51 heard from L.A. about the woman down from a possible shooting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Dixie with Jim Reed and Pete Malloy from Adam-12.

Photo: Dixie with Johnny and Roy at the ER desk.

Photo: Close of Pete Malloy.

Photo: Close of Jim Reed.

Photo: Roy and Johnny leaving out the hospital entrance.

Photo: A sniper, kneeling and shooting.

Photo: Dave and Ken in a red car chasing and pointing.

Photo: Hutch and Starsky ducked behind the car.

Photo: Starsky with gun up checking cautiously near the Gran Torino.

Photo: Starsky reacting seeing a woman on the ground,  
shot in the head.

Photo: Hutch radioing out for help while peeking undercover.

*  
From : Roxy Dee Sent : Friday, November 12, 2004 3:03 AM Subject : Starsky Stresses

Hutch reached into the back seat of the Torino and grabbed up his black street clothes duffle bag and tossed it onto the roof of the car. He snatched out a folded T shirt that lay within and ran with it back over to his partner working on the girl. "Ok, I got this.." he said, pressing the shirt gently against the gushing wound on her temple.

Starsky gave the woman another breath and the last of the dusky cyanosis on her face disappeared a few seconds later. "Her heartbeat's real slow, Hutch."

"I noticed that. Just keep going." Ken said. "Metford was here. She's been roughed up. There's bruising on her throat."

"A hostage who fought back?" Dave said after his next breath.

"Probably. This doesn't look like a penetrating bullet wound or even a graze. There's no friction burns."

"Let's hope so or .............Captain Dobey's gonna kill me..............Temporarily blinding one girl once with a bullet was ........................definitely enough for me partner."

Quite suddenly, the girl gasped through her unconsciousness, as if breaking through a resistance.

Startled, Dave let go of her face. Then he caught hold of himself emotionally and started carefully relifting her jawbone so that the girl could breathe freely. "Hello. She's back.." he blurted out in his nervousness.

"Good job." Hutch reached a hand around Starsky's to a neck pulse that wasn't under a bruise. "Pulse's still very slow."

"How's that bleeding?"

"I've got it controlled. She isn't losing any more."

"From there..." Starsky snorted.

"Yeah, well, the paramedics can figure out her other problems once they get here. Just keep up that airway hold."

"You don't have to tell me twice.." Dave said empathetically.  
"Hey, miss.. Can you hear me?"

The woman twitched and started to moan, breathing shallowly but well.

"Easy, hon. Don't try to move." said Hutchinson.

Welcoming sirens grew in the distance and the two plain clothes detectives could make out the familiar red outline of a Los Angeles County Fire Department rescue squad heading into their direction from the side street. They saw its front tires thunk over the slight curve leading into the alleyway once they spotted the Torino and its red flashing light. They were aided on where to go by one or two officers in front of L.A. City black and whites starting to cordon off the area with crime tape.

"G*d I hope they remember their crime scene approach protocols.." mumbled Starsky.

The driver of the rescue vehicle followed the Torino's direction of travel and skid marks perfectly.

"He has.." smiled Hutch. "At least this pair's smart enough not to disturb anything." he raised his voice. "She's breathing now! Semi conscious.." he yelled out to them. "So far, possible head and neck injury! We think she was in a struggle."

The two detectives watched as the paramedics gathered medical equipment that matched the situation, the 02 apparatus, defib and EKG, a wooden long board and C collar, along with their usual biophone, drug and I.V. boxes.

The two paramedics hugged the chain link fence tightly,  
off the beaten track, until they were even with the Torino,  
then they cut over to the woman's side.

Johnny Gage immediately knelt down with a pen light after setting a high flow oxygen mask over her nose and mouth which Starsky held on manually. "Hi. I'm Johnny Gage and this is my partner Roy DeSoto." he said to the two police officers.

"Detective Ken Hutchinson.. Homicide. And my fretting, pale friend over there is Detective David Starsky. Also with Homicide." he teased, trying to make his partner more at ease with it all. "And we're trying to prevent another one here in the girl."

Gage nodded. "I assume we're all safe now..and that we're not about to get our heads shot off by some crazed thug type?" Johnny asked quickly.

At that comment Dave cringed slightly, a subconscious gesture that only Hutch saw. "We're safe.." Starsky said quietly. "There's enough cops around here now to fill a barn."

"Ok. Just checking. Gimme some history on her, Detective.  
But keep her head still just like you're doing." he ordered Starsky.

"We think she was roughed up by a real low life with a history of violence who was trying to get away from us. She may have been in the middle of our exchanging gunfire."

"Male or female assailant?" Gage asked reasonably.

"Does it matter?! Just help her fellas. Fast." Dave flared sarcastically,  
his adrenaline rush still making him jittery.

"It could. And we are." said Roy calmly. "Just take it easy. What you're doing is making a huge difference on how she's managing now.  
But a few questions answered will let us provide care that targets her medical problems quicker. So humor us a bit ok. She's stable now from what I can tell so far." he said, taking a quick respiration count with a hand on her stomach.

Johnny waggled his head in agreement as he slipped a cervical collar around the girl's neck after a brief examination of the bruising Hutch pointed out to him that was now taking the shape of a large man's finger grips. "It was a man. She's been strangled. And this head wound's probably the result of her being pistol whipped." he said, briefly lifting up the shirt Hutch was holding over her left temple.

Starsky sighed in relief. "You sure about that?"

"Pretty sure.." Johnny said, smiling. "An x-ray will tell that for certain.  
There's no bullet path cratering. I can see the edge of a gun grip's impression on her skull where the skin's torn... Roy, negative on Coon's eyes or cerebral fluid out the nose or ears. Hmm, her pupils are equal, but sluggish."

"Late hypoxia? I'll ask Rampart if we can hyperventilate her with that possible meningeal artery involvement.." he said pointing to the wound on the girl's head. "Dave, you can let go now. She's maintaining ok on her own and the collar'll keep her head and neck still. Dave? Did you hear me?" Roy said a little louder.

"He answers better to Starsky.." Hutch said, slapping a free hand against the dazed detective's arm. "Starsk.."

"Huh? Oh, ok." said Starsky, finally catching up on the conversation. He reluctantly let the girl go, and used part of Hutch's T shirt compress to wipe the girl's drying blood off of his hands.  
"Sorry. I was...just thinking.."

"Yeah, about the ways we're gonna nail the b*st*rd who hurt her." said Hutch.

"So right.." admitted the curly haired detective. "Uh,, she wasn't breathing so hot when we got to her. Her face turned kinda blue."

"For how long?" Johnny asked, rechecking the flow of oxygen to her mask for a good seal.

"Half a minute or so. I had to help her out for a few minutes. Then all of the sudden, she sorta gasped ...like she only just then, caught her breath back." Dave said, trying to explain it well.

Roy grinned. "She probably got the wind knocked out of her. Happens sometimes when victims are shoved to the ground hard enough by an attacker. "

"What about the strangling?" Hutch wondered. "Could that have caused her to quit trying?"

"Most likely not. You said this man was running to get away from you. He wouldn't have had time enough to suffocate her."

"But that is why her pulse's so slow." Gage added, taking a blood pressure."Roy, 64/40. Pulse's 42. Respirations still 18. Her carotid sinus must've been contused."

"Say what?" asked Starsky.

Johnny began to explain while Roy started cutting off the woman's sweater and pants. Both detectives averted their eyes and looked around anywhere but down in typical bystander self consciousness.

DeSoto noticed. "Here, cover her with this shock sheet once I'm through. I'm just gonna look her over for a fast check for other injuries she might have."

He saw the detectives relax once he was through and had her bundled up again, neck to toes, in the plastic blanket.

Gage went on.." .....the whole area inside the carotid artery along the side of the neck's richly innervated with the sensory bundles that regulate the body's blood pressure so that it doesn't have wild swings one way or the other. Now hers has been injured on one or both sides and that has brought on vasovagal responses, that slow heart rate you felt and the low B/P we're getting on her now."

"I see.." said Starsky, clearly not understanding the jargon.  
"But she will get over it?" he pressed.

"Eventually." Roy said of the carotid sinus syncope syndrome.

Starsky smiled in relief.

Gage rubbed his chin. "...It also depends on what her head injury involves, too. That laceration of hers is very large."

Starsky's grin turned into a frown as he sagged in relief into Hutch's arms. "At least she wasn't shot. Namely by me. Oh, Hutch. I don't think I could've lived through that again. Thank heavens for small mercies."

Both paramedics exchanged puzzled looks but then they politely ignored the detectives' private conversation while they got busy with the rest of the woman's patient care.

All four of them heard a light cough and right then,  
the woman's eyes fluttered open.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Starsky and Hutch asking questions in a closeup.

Photo: The torino pulled over on a city street.

Photo: The squad in an alleyway shed.

Photo: Roy and Johnny giving care to a victim on the ground.

Photo: Starsky, Hutch, DeSoto and Gage with the woman on the ground with a backdrop of palm trees and white sky.

*  
From: "Patti" Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:08:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Complications

Johnny Gage bent close to the woman's face, holding her shoulders to prevent their muzzy patient from trying to sit up. "Hey there. Can you hear me? What's your name? Can you tell me that?"

The girl groaned wetly, closing her eyes, still coughing weakily.

Gage moved the O2 mask aside and cross scissored her mouth open, using her teeth, looking for blood or any other fluid that might be there. He accepted an active suction line that Roy shoved over to him with a foot but Johnny soon found that it wasn't needed.

"Nothing's here Roy. Her airway's doing fine. Ma'am? Hey! Can you answer me?" Johnny asked again, letting go of her mouth. He dug several knuckles into her breastbone.

The girl immediately shoved his hand away with only her left arm and her face screwed up at the painful rub. *choke* Ugghh.." and she took a deep breath from the mask Starsky replaced back onto her face. "Aaaah..." she sobbed. "My...hea..d-d.."

Johnny rocked back onto his heels. "I know. Easy. Just lie still. Can you tell me what happened?"

" I...mmmgh.." and fright suddenly filled her dirt crusty eyes as the rest of the woman's words faded into incoherency.

"Just try to relax. My name's Johnny Gage and I'm a Los Angeles County paramedic. We're gonna take real good care of you, all right? Keep holding still until I can check you out a little better. Tell me where your pain is besides your head. Can you tell me that?"

The woman, looking groggy and heavily stunned, didn't reply, but tears leaked out of the corner of one of her eyes as she finally tracked Johnny's.

"You're still waking up a bit. Don't be scared. Try and take as many deep full breaths from this oxygen as you can, ok? It'll help you focus a little better." Gage suggested to her as he rechecked the status of her pupils. "I'm just gonna take another look here with a flashlight to see how you're doing. Just relax."

Hutch picked up the girl's cut away clothes and started searching for a wallet in a jeans pocket. He found one. "I've got a name. Mary Malone. Age 22 from 14 North Crescent in Anaheim. The photo I've got here matches her in a positive I.D. Starsky, California driver's license." he told the paramedics and his partner. "There's also a student's pass here to the University down the block."

Gage nodded while Roy called Rampart Base on the biophone.

After a half minute or so of watching Mary take breaths under the mask, Gage spoke again. "Mary. Talk to me now. Do you hurt anywhere else besides your head?"

Johnny noticed that she was growing more and more agitated. Finally,  
her lips opened and she let out a fully coherent sentence. But it wasn't a reply to his insistent question. It was about something else entirely different. "...Tob... He's... Toby?!" she started calling out. "Where are y---!?"

"Toby? Who's Toby? Mary! Take it easy. Don't move around so much. You're gonna hurt yourself!" Johnny grunted, keeping her shoulders pinned and immobile while Hutch kept firm hands across her forehead and over the dressing on top of the gaping wound ripped open on her temple.

"Mary..." Hutch started in, being closest. "Who's Toby? Easy hon. Just answer the question without fighting us.."

"My...my son. He took him.." she cried frantically. "Ohmyg*d. That man had a gun!" and she started wailing and struggling in her panic. Johnny and Hutch both restrained her tightly.

Starsky took the wallet Hutch had dropped on the ground and leafed through its photograph section. He found several of a young boy with blond hair. "There's a couple photos of a kid in here,.... about four years old. He looks a lot like Mary. I'll put out an APB." and he got up to radio headquarters from the Torino.

Hutch nodded and then he looked down once more."Mary.. Mary! Lie still! We've got nearly a dozen police officers in the area and we'll look for him immediately. But you've got to start cooperating with the paramedics here so they can start treating you! I'm Detective Hutchinson and I promise you that I'll do everything I can to find your son, but my first concern right now is you, and your injuries. Let these firemen get you to a doctor and to some help at the hospital. The best way for me to help find your son is for you to start answering their questions about what happened to you, ok?"

Mary Malone went limp, sobbing in resignation. "Please...I'll do anything you ask. Just find my little boy...."

Hutch sighed and so did Gage. Ken let go of the T shirt over Mary's temple. "The bleeding's pretty much stopped here. I'm letting go." he told Johnny. "I've gotta go help my partner get out that possible kidnapped hostage bulletin. I'll be right back to help you with Mary's spine board. I'll also make sure an ambulance is well on the way."

Johnny nodded to the fair haired policeman and got to work over Mary.  
"Thanks, Detective Hutchinson."

"Please, call me Hutch. It's easier, Mr. Gage."

"O.k.." replied Johnny. "I'll remember that."

Ken got up and joined Starsky by the Gran Torino and a couple of other officers who were heading up the grid search for the rifle armed Metford.  
He also helped Starsky give Captain Dobey a preliminary report of the chase and circumstances surrounding the girl's assault,  
over their car phone.

Johnny bent close to Mary's face once more, wrapping a Coban elastic wrap around her head to hold the blood soaked T shirt and dressings into firm place against her temple. "How are you doing, Mary?"  
"I...feel so dizzy, sir..."

Gage smiled at her. "Well then it's a good thing you're still lying down now, isn't it? How's your neck?" he added quickly.

"Sore."

"How about back here?" he said, gently feeling the bones in the back from the base of her skull and down to the top of her shoulders.

"It hurts just in front where he grabbed me. The left side of my neck's burning." and she pointed over the biggest of the angry fingermarks wrapping around there.

Gage checked gently for equality on both carotid pulses with a couple of fingers. "Can you still breathe all right? Is your throat swelling up at all?"

"No.. I think its ok. It's just my head. It hurts real bad." she gasped.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, if one's nothing and 10's the worst, where's your pain right now, Mary?" Johnny asked.

"A nine.."

"Are you nauseated?"

"Yes.."

"Ok, just let me know if you think you're gonna get sick and we'll tip you over."

"O.k.." and she grimaced rubbing her right arm with her left hand.

"What's wrong?" Johnny asked.

"I.. can't pick up my arm."

"This one here?" he said, gripping her hand on that side.

"Yeah.. it feels ...kinda tingly and numb."

Johnny got both her palms in both of his. "Squeeze my hands. Hard as you can." he encouraged her.

He noticed her grip was weak but still there on the right but her ability to keep her arm uplifted above her, was absent.

He moved down to test both her legs' strength, moving the shock sheet aside. "Ok, can you feel me touching you down here?" he said pulling out a scissors point and tapping her shins and the tops of both her feet.

Mary nodded yes.

Johnny put the scissors back into his hip holster.

"All right. Push both feet down onto both my hands. Ok, good. Now try and lift your legs against my holding them down, hard as you can. Good. That's fine." He looked for a Babinski's. Her toes curled down to his forceps point sweep check, normally, on both sides.

"I'm ticklish." she said, trying to smile. The grin was nonexistent on the left side of Mary's face.

"Sorry." Gage grinned, looking up. He didn't miss seeing the face droop and he didn't alarm Mary by mentioning it.

He went on to get a full medical history, which he wrote down onto a small tablet with his neurological findings. Gage handed it to his partner.

Roy had reached a physician through the biophone line. "Rampart. We've a 22 year old female. Victim of an assault. She's got a large left temple wound due to a blunt force blow to the head. Bleeding has been controlled. I estimate her blood loss at under 500 cc's.  
Rampart, it seems she was a victim of a near strangling.

"She was respiratory arrested for a couple of minutes but was aided by a bystander to spontaneous recovery. She's now awake and oriented to 12 on the Glasgow on 15 liters of O2. There's signs of non invasive crushing injury to the soft tissues of the neck. She's complaining of marked tenderness in the left anterior throat without airway distress. She's been cervical spine immobilized. Apparent restlessness has proved to be emotional in nature.

"She's positive for vasovagal signs. Carotid pulses are equal. BP initially was depressed at 64/40. Pulse's now 50 beats a minute, up from 42, and regular. Respirations are 18 and shallow. Pupils were equal and reactive, but sluggish, when we first arrived, but now the ipsilateral side's dilated. She has contralateral hemiparesis of only her right arm with partial sensation and face drooping on the left. Negative on Babinski's.

"There's no indication of further injuries or allergies. Nor does she have a prior history of medical problems. She's negative for any medications."

Dr. Early replied back.

## Start a large bore I.V., 51, of Normal Saline. Run in 500 ml's to offset her carotid hypotension. Then turn the intravenous to TKO. Give her mannitol IV 1 g/kg in a rapid push once you're in transit. After she's been long board immobilized, raise her head up. Closely watch for signs of a deteriorating consciousness level. If she develops Cushing's, administer 1.0 mg/kg of Lidocaine slow IVP. Use 5mg diazepam for any agitation.

##If her Glasgow drops below 8, hyperventilate her, 51, and make preparations for a rapid sequence induction ET intubation. I'll advise you on what to use for a paralytic agent.

##Give her .5 mgs atropine IV for that bradycardia. Get a strip for me, 51, I want to look for any arrythmias. Monitor her vital signs every five minutes and transport as soon as possible, without sirens, to prevent possible seizures.##

Roy repeated back all of Joe's orders and then he and Johnny, along with the two plain clothes detectives, got Mary situated onto a backboard.

A minute later, the Hearse ambulance arrived and Mary was gurney loaded onto it with DeSoto and all the gear boxes. They used the squad's splint box turned onto one side to lift up the spine board's head end 30 degrees. Roy repeated to Gage. "Johnny. Doc wants silent mode in."

"Ok.." said Johnny, putting on his helmet onto his head.

Starsky looked at DeSoto, holding the ambulance door so the paramedic wouldn't have to shut it himself. "Traffic's not gonna do anything to get out of the way with just your ambulance reds flashing by themselves."

"We've no other choice in the matter. Mary has to stay perfectly quiet and calm. She's got an active intracranial bleed ongoing and any further excitement, like loud noises, are liable to complicate things for her." answered Roy.  
"Mr. DeSoto, you have an alternative. We'll go ahead of the ambulance. Our siren faces forwards and isn't heard past the rear of our car. Now where's the girl headed?" Hutch asked, his question sounding more like a demand.

"Rampart General Hospital in Torrance." said Roy.

"Let see, that's.. 6th to Ventura Freeway North, to 101 North to 226th Street. Hang a right... Right?" Starsky asked the paramedic quickly after his mental map drawing.

"Yeah, that's the shortest route. And if I can't talk ya out of an escort, I'll take it." DeSoto grinned and got on board the ambulance.

"We gotta go anyway to talk to Mary for more details before she heads into surgery. We may not get another chance to learn from her about what actually happened if she doesn't make it." Hutch said grimly.

Roy frowned when his hidden paramedic worry was stated so openly.  
"If Mary's got just an epidural hematoma, she's got every chance in the world to survive it. The neurosurgeons at Rampart are absolutely the best surgeons around these parts."

"DeSoto, we're counting on them to do their d*mned*st to save her.  
Those doctors, and my partner and I, are little different. Little Toby's now counting on the both of us,...to save HIM." said Hutch with conviction, meeting Roy's blue eyes evenly with his own.

"Let's go. Time's wasting." said Starsky gently. "Be sure to let that attendant know that he's following our unmarked police car. It's the striped candy apple over there."

Roy nodded. "I'll let him know."

Hutch shut the door until it latched. He then patted the glass to let the driver know that he could start turning around back towards the main drag.

Starsky sprinted ahead to the Torino to precede him in the same move.  
Then he picked up his partner in a spin of tires and dust and soon, the siren blaring Torino and silent, lights only running squad and ambulance, were off to Rampart as fast as Starsky and Hutch could scatter the city traffic.

In route, Roy set up an EKG tracing off Mary. She had fallen into a litany of calling out her son's name. She no longer opened her eyes to Roy's questions nor followed any of his suggestions.

Roy picked up the phone. "Rampart this is Squad 51, how do you read?"

##Go ahead, 51.##

"Our victim's LOC is 9. Stand by for a Lead Two and vitals."

##Standing by.##

The paramedic sent on the telemetry to Dr. Early and waited, biting his lip. Roy picked up his HT to Johnny. "HT 51 to Squad 51."

##This is Squad 51.## answered Gage driving behind the ambulance.

"She's slipping into unconsciousness. We might have to pull over for that intubation before we get there."

##10-4, 51. Watching out for a curbside. I'll let the detectives know that we might emergency halt on their Tach Two. ##

-  
In the striped Torino, Starsky had one eye on the ambulance behind them and the other on the road. He shouted to a slow driver in front of him. "Come on, buddy! Move it!"  
he shouted, hanging his badge out the open car window for the startled motorist to see. "What part of the color red don't ya see?! Maybe this badge'll talk better!"

Hutch ducked down in embarrassment. "Starsky, go easy on them. Scaring the other drivers'll only make'em slower in pulling out of our way. We're making good time. I estimate Rampart's only three minutes away."

"More like six minutes, Hutch. Did you forget the seven o'clock coal train already? I'm speeding because we're a minute away from it cutting us off at the pass. Look over there buddy boy." and he pointed out to their left, where two city blocks sideways from their own position, the guard rails of the train crossing intersection, were already lowering and flashing red.

Rows of cars were damming up in front of them in anticipation of their own street's train rails coming down.

Then Gage's transmission about Mary's potential future ambulance emergency stop came over the radio through their police dispatcher.

"O.K. Nobody's stopping for anything else that's as unnecessary as a freight train here." said Starsky and he drove onto the sidewalk to get around the halting cars. Then he threw the Torino into a sharp left onto the railroad tracks wooden rails as he waved on the ambulance and squad to start coming towards the tracks normally, via the street.

Starsky jerked the wheel and spun the Torino sideways until the locomotive conductor was sure to see the red car obstructing his way. He pounded on the dashboard happily when he heard the blast of the train's klaxon bite down in rapid succession and when blue sparking arcs started to fly as the train's emergency brakes were frantically applied.

Hutch paled, seeing that his passenger door was the side facing the oncoming train. "Starsky, what the h*ll are you doing?!" he shouted in a high panicked voice.

"Slowing him down. The gates won't flash for our street until he's an eighth of a mile away. Remember your train stats? I'm buying us an extra thirty seconds. At least." said Starsky.

"You're crazy! Are you sure you didn't jam the tires into the rocks!  
We might not be able to work free again in time."

The smile of success faded from Starsky's face into a white wash.

Until he tested the stick and the forward and reverse gears until the Torino rocked in response comfortably. "We're not stuck, Hutch. And we only gotta stay here long enough for the squad and ambulance to work past the traffic jam and get past that R/R crossing. Then we can rocket outta here.."

Hutch just stared at his partner and back at the oncoming train again in a panicked flurry of glances. "St...ar..sk..That train's going over forty miles an hour!" he shouted.

"Just a few.....seconds.....more..." said Starsky, watching the intersection crossing the avenue they had just left for the Hearse ambulance and rescue squad, in the rear view mirror. "There goes Mary.." he wiped his hands on his jeans. Then he started to re-grip the Torino's steering wheel, ignoring Hutch's shouts of alarm.

The train's next horn blare all but split their eardrums.

"StarskyyyYYY!" said Hutch.

"....and there goes Johnny..." said the curly haired detective with a crow of delight. "They did it.." he laughed, highly pleased. "They beat the train!"  
Then he caught sight of the immense train bumper scoop and a whole lotta of steam boiling down on them less than ten yards away from Hutch's passenger door.

Hutch was scared into completely frozen immobility.

"GaahhhHH!" gasped Starsky and he punched the gas pedal to the metal with all the strength he had in his leg. The Torino scooted off the tracks mere feet before the train barreled by in a high speed squeal of sparking brakes.  
He caught the barest glimpse of its terrified train conductor before the young stripe hatted man in the locomotive was swept past and then beyond them.

Clouds of dust roared into the detectives' car in an angry wind and made both men cough and choke violently. When the dust cleared, they both eyeballed each other from underneath a thick coating of grit and sand. The dusty assault had snapped Hutch out of his freeze. "....Starsk... if ..you ...ever...." he began, holding up a now trembling finger. Then he sneezed.

"I promise. I won't. Not ever again. Hey, let's catch up with them now, Hutch. I can still see them on the merge ramp leading onto the freeway."  
And he spun the car's tires until they dug them off the soft soil of the intertracks and back onto a sidewalk. He cut over onto the merge lane and boiled up onto the freeway in long peels of noisy rubber.  
A plume of dust accented their departure from the car's interior.

Belatedly, Hutch fastened himself tightly into his seat's lap belt.  
"I should turn you in for reckless endangerment Starsky! I'm sure the captain will LOVE to hear about this latest stunt." he said,  
trying to brush off the dust coating his tan leather jacket in vain.

"How can you rat on me? It'll have no credibility at all. There were no witnesses visible for the last fifteen seconds. The dust cloud was too big for anyone to see through."

"I saw everything just fine with perfect one hundred percent clarity. That's all I'll need you big lummox!"

"You mean you'd doom our six year long partnership to a dissolvement? Hutch I'm thoroughly surprised at you. I only made that move to save a risk to a life. Mary's."

"By risking ours?!"

"I had everything perfectly under control."

"Let me tell you something Starsky. If you wanna go around rescuing lives, do it with your Wesson 39-9mm. You're far better at shooting than you are at playing chicken."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Hutch was still fuming when he killed the siren long enough for them to slide past the speeding squad and ambulance to get back into the leading escort position they had before the train crossing. "Or better yet. Why don't you join the firehouse guys to do that sort of thing and work it out of your system?!" he snarled angrily.

"You know, that's not such a bad idea, Hutch. All this ambulance and emergency medical stuff's addicting." And he flipped their forward siren back on with a fancy florish. "I wonder if those two paramedics' stationhouse ever takes on police volunteers...."

Hutch just stared at his partner in utter disbelief. "I was kidding,  
Starsky."

"I don't think I was." Starsky replied back, keeping tabs on their two tails in the rear mirror. "When I was a kid, I always dreamed of becoming a fireman."

"You've got the wrong kind of badge for that kind of work. Forget about it."

"Guess you're right, Hutch. Ah, here's our exit." And he calmly signalled his right hand turn off the freeway.

-  
##Did you see that, Roy?## Gage came over DeSoto's HT.

"See what, Johnny?" answered Roy over his radio as he counted Mary's pulse at her carotid. The woman had quieted significantly verbally and had accepted a simple nasopharyngeal airway without a fuss. So far, her Glasgow rating was staying a solid 9.

##That police car. It just took on a train so we could get across.##

"I hadn't noticed. Mary's fair. Still a 9. And Joe's still going over her EKG. She's showing inverted T waves, and non-specific ST depressions. Pressure's rising."

##How high?##

"In the hundreds palpated. She's still breathing ok. I put a nasal airway in and she took it."

##Keep me posted.##

"I will."

##See you at the entrance. We're gonna make it in without that stop.##

"That's my call, too. Whatever those detectives did back there bought Mary a whole lot of time."

##I'm sure they knew that, doing it. Man, I wish I could've become a policeman. Seems like a d*mned fun profession.  
I wonder if their department ever takes on fireman ride alongs.##

"Policemen are useful sometimes, Johnny. But a lot of them are hot headed risk takers who'll do anything for the shortest outcome. They're not your kind of people."

##Who says? I won't know if I don't try..##

"I've never heard of volunteer fire in a police station."

##Oh. That's too bad, Roy. I'll see you in one.##

Soon, the Torino, ambulance and rescue squad were lined up at the emergency entrance and powered down.

Mary Malone was quickly bustled inside to Dixie awaiting there.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Hutch on the radio mic in the Torino. Starsky driving.

Photo: A Hearse ambulance. Stuck in traffic.

Photo: *animated* A freight train passing a crossing at night.

Photo: Hutch panicking in the car with Starsky.

Photo: Johnny driving the squad.

Photo: Roy on the biophone in the ambulance looking at his watch.

*  
From: "Cory Anda" andacoryh... Date: Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:11 pm Subject: Hallway Duty

"Treatment 3." said Dixie quickly as she took the hanging I.V. from Roy DeSoto's hand so he could manage his chattering HT radio. The two other men, she recognized as police detectives. " Gentlemen, Dr. Early's called for a neurosurgeon and I'll be the one helping you fill out your crime report after we're through examining Mary. Johnny, could you stick around and help x-ray out with her films? I've already set out an extra lead apron."

"Sure, Dix."

"How's she breathing?" Joe Early asked as Gage and DeSoto wheeled Mary's gurney into the indicated room.

"All right." Roy replied. "Still reacting to pain on both sides of her body. All except that one arm. She was talking a minute ago, but now she's just mumbling." And the three of them disappeared inside the treatment room.

Detective Hutchinson sped up his walk until he was parallel with Dixie.  
"Ma'am. Is there any way my partner and I could ask Miss Malone a few questions? She's not unconscious yet."

"That's seriously doubtful." Dixie said, as she whirled to prevent the two men from entering after Mary and the two paramedics when they tried to follow them. "Excuse us. We've films to get and then she's going straight into a ward for an immediate craniotomy."

She nodded to the two policemen she had anticipated needing to thwart the detectives' meddling, to stand fast on either side of Mary's door.

"Miss.....McCall." said Starsky after reading Dixie's name tag quickly. "You don't understand the urgency of the situation! Malone's four year old little boy has been kidnapped by her attacker and only Mary knows the critical details. This'll only take a couple of minutes. If she dies before we find out anything...."

Dixie's hand slammed into the frame of the treatment room's door.  
"She'll die for certain if you two delay us or her treatment for even a minute..." she snarled. "Please! Go sit down in the waiting room! If she says anything during her exam and stabilization, I'll send Johnny or Roy out here to let you know about it!"

The richly varnished set of doors swung shut into their faces.

Starsky was about to go barging in after Dixie, when Hutch grabbed his shoulders, and stopped him.

Starsky knocked his hands away. "What are you doing?" he said with a low warning glare. "You know we've gotta get her side of it for the boy's sake."

"Starsky. Think about it. Just how much could Mary've learned from Medford during the brunt of the attack? He was strangling her."

"Adrenaline sometimes does some pretty powerful things on memory, partner. I'm banking on Mary having had a total recall effect because of her mother's instinct firing off for her child's protection." and he started to push on the doors around Hutch's larger frame.

The two very large officers started to tense up their well muscled arms.

Hutch once again prevented his smaller partner from moving. "Don't, Starsk. Be happy. We've managed to save Malone long enough for the doctors to get their shot at finishing the job. Let's go grab a cup of coffee."

"No way in h*ll, Hutch. I'm not getting the wool pulled over my eyes by skipping an interview with another material witness against Metford again. Not this time. We lost the last one when he died on the surgical table."

"I insist." said Hutchinson, spinning his partner around toward the front reception desk of Emergency's ward. "Sorry officers. He's a bit gung ho when it comes to cracking female victimization cases. Come on, Starsky.  
I smell coffee brewing over here and you look like you could seriously use some right about now."

Starsky let himself be herded, finally realizing that he should retreat rather than embarrass them both with a public scuffle with two fellow policemen. Then he shivered. "I am kinda cold."

"Stress'll do that." said Hutch matter of factly, grinning at the nurses who hurried by them, going about their business. He absently patted Starsky's shoulder reassuringly as he guided him away from Mary's room and the two head nurse appointed guards. "We've been hunting Metford down like an animal for ...what? Two days straight?"

"Three. I remember that because that's how long it's been since either of us got any sleep." Starsky grumbled unhappily. Then he shrugged out of Hutch's grip, cooperating at last, and he adjusted his brown leather jacket back into comfortable place around his fatigue slumped shoulders.

"Homicidal maniacs always give us a run for the money. It's the price we haveta pay before we get to nab the bad guy." Hutch reasoned. "Haven't you ever noticed that?"

"No." Starsky reached out an arm in a grab and collapsed his weary butt on an empty gurney stored along the side of the hospital hallway with a sigh, before they had even walked thirty steps. He toppled over onto his side, nesting a cheek on an elbow and then he closed his eyes. "Wake me when those two fire monkeys get back out here, Hutch. I want a decent prognosis on Mary for Captain Dobey a.s.a.p. You know how he makes our life a living h*ll until he hears the final results or at least some decent progress news on any of our felony cases."

"That may take a while. They've got to clear her C-spine before they can even move her."

"That's ok by me. Why don't you grab the other end of the bed and lie down. This feels....absolutely....divine...." he murmured sleepily, curling up under the wheeled gurney's antiseptically clean white sheet.

"Starsky?" Hutch inquired, staying on his feet. "I don't think you should be doing that.. I mean, what if it gets busy later and they need this stretcher?"

A loud snore peeled immediately from Starsky's lax face.

"Starsk?"

There was no answer.

Hutch finally yawned uncontrollably and then he gave in to a mild grin. "All right. I guess you deserve a nap, pal. Looks like we've a long night ahead of us." he said angling Starsky's chin, so he slept silently without noise.

To keep nosy hospital staff at bay, Hutch threw the sheet over his partner's face, took over a chair, and snatched up a magazine to read. Then he sat next to Starsky's gurney as if on a corpse watch.

The shining detective's badge that he put out on his shirt's lapel kept anyone from asking any questions about either the man shaped lump under the crisply pressed sheeting on the bed, or him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: An x-ray of a linear skull fracture with a parietal epidural hemorrhage.

Photo: Hutch muscling up two guards in front of a hospital room door as Starsky watches.

Photo: Dixie inside a treatment room in front of a centesis tray.

Photo: Dr. Joe Early frowning beside a surgical emergency door.

******************************************************************* Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:20:34 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: The Lead..

Dr. Brackett was already in the Treatment Room on the phone.  
"Joe, I've got an anesthesiologist coming right now to get her squared away with an endotrach tube."

"Thanks, Kel." said Joe as he began a funduscopic exam on Mary. "The sooner the better. There's retinal petecchiae in evidence."

"Intracranial changes?" Dr. Brackett offered.

Joe nodded. "At the very least, a linear skull fracture. I'm feeling a crack that's non depressed right along her parietal bone just above the left ear. With that same side dilated pupil and partial hemiparesis that Roy found, I'll bet there's a strong possibility that she's got an active epidural bleed going on."

"No bet." said Kel. Then he turned to Dixie while he continued waiting for the X-ray tech to lay out the lateral and frontal cranial film series on the light board.  
"Dix, I want you to set up a foley before she hits the OR. Take care of that once she's under and intubated. Also draw blood for electrolytes, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, glucose, a complete blood cell count with platelets, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time. Have the lab do a toxicology screen and serum alcohol level and get a blood type and crossmatch. Her chart's not up from records yet." said Brackett.

"Right away, Kel." and she went to the wall phone in the back of the room.

He moved to the woman's right side and uptook her hand and fingers. "Johnny, what's her pressure?"

"It's up, Dr. Brackett. 150/98. Respirations are only ten now. The heart rate you already know." he said pointing to the audible cardiac monitor that they all could hear pacing off a slow beat.

Joe completed his physical check of Mary's head and he moved to her legs to test their reactions with a reflex hammer. He looked up when the anesthesiologist arrived with his equipment.

Brackett pressed his thumbnail on top of Mary's middle finger nail bed, sliding it along until his clicked over the end of hers at the finger tip. The rest of Mary's fingers on that hand flexed, transiently exaggerated. "Joe,  
I've a positive Hoffman's response."

"Both sides?"

Kel checked. "Yes."

Dr. Early frowned. "That means there's a problem at C5 or above in addition to her head injury."

"Good thing she was collared." Dr. Brackett said. "Did you get cervical plates, too?"

"Yeah, they're almost set. Hang on."

"Mike. Get her ready, fast. Cushing's is just around the corner." Kel said to the anesthestist.

Right then, Mary moaned. Roy, by her right side, leaned in close. "Mary... can you hear me? The doctors are right here. They're gonna take real good care of ya. We're at the hospital now."

Mary got more agitated, as if feeling Dixie's tap for the lab's arterial blood,  
and she started to fidget restlessly. "Tttt----Ttttoobbbb "

"Keep her down." Brackett warned the two paramedics to hold her still. He drew up a 3 mg syringe of pentobarbitol and injected it into Mary's I.V. "Mary. Mary. Listen to me. You hurt your neck when you hit the ground. It's very important for you to lie as still as you can and don't move."

"TTttttt---oob. Money's on the dress...e..r. Tooower's Plaazzz-zz."

"Shhh.." Kel soothed holding her forehead. "Don't try to talk. We've given you some medication to relax you."

"Brrrrriing....ittt th---" Mary's face slacked off with a sigh as Brackett's sedative took effect and she quit fighting actively.

Mike deftly took out the nasopharyngeal airway and suctioned the blood and saliva out of her mouth and nose.

He prepared for an in-line intubation with the endotrach airway tube he had ready to place. He nodded to Kel to signal that he was ready for the doctor to inject the second syringe full of succinylcholine to paralyze her the rest of the way until her breathing stopped.

Gage pulled the sheet down so the anesthesiologist could see her chest for landmarks and its eventual rise for when the ventilator was turned on. He read off the numbers on the billows gauge. "She's got mild hypocapnea.. I'm reading,...30- 35 mm Hg, doc."

"That's fine, Johnny.." said Joe Early. "That carbon dioxide level will prevent any severe vasoconstriction and it'll eliminate her existing cerebral ischemia. Do you have good breath sounds yet for Mike, Roy?"  
he asked as the tube doc finished his work.

Roy listened carefully over both of Mary's lungs and her stomach with the stethoscope he still had around his neck.  
"There's no gastric gurgling. You've got your placement right first time." he shared. Mike nodded and taped off the breathing tube so it wouldn't move around during her transit into surgery.

"Ok, let's go. Dixie, make sure the lab results and those X-rays meet up with us while we scrub up. We'll stall with starting Mary's tapping burr holes as long as we can."

Dixie nodded as the two paramedics bundled Mary up again in warm heated blankets and helped the orderlies gather all her tubes and IV from around the wheeled bird vent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hutch rose immediately from his chair hopefully, as Mary was wheeled out into the hallway. But his smile died when he saw that she was tubed and not breathing on her own, hooked up to a machine.

"Do you need us any more, docs?" Gage asked Joe Early and Kel Brackett from alongside her bed.

"We got it from here." Kel said, helping to keep Mary's airway from jostling.

"Tell those two detectives we'll give them a call as soon as Mary hits the Recovery Unit." Joe added as they put some fast distance between them.

"Will do.." said Roy and the two fire paramedics slowed their pace as the surgical entourage entered the metal doored elevator.

Hutchinson met up with them as the doors snicked shut on the sight of Mary's pale, still face. "Gentlemen? Did she speak anymore?"

"Hmm?" Gage said, looking up thoughtfully. "Oh, . Uh. Let me think back. We really had our hands full. Uhhhh. She was really worried about her son, Toby." he offered.

"Yeah, she called out his name a few times." Roy agreed. "And..and and.. she mentioned something about some money.."

"About what money?" said Hutch starting to walk back down the hall to where he had been reading. The two firemen followed, next to him.

Gage blinked a few times. "She didn't specify.. but I think she said something like, 'It's on the dresser.' "

"Yeah, and about a place that it had to go to." DeSoto frowned, rubbing his head wearily.

"Did she give an address?" Hutch asked, pausing by the gurney along the wall.

"Not exactly. We had a hard time making it out." Roy admitted.  
"She was getting doped up pretty good by that point. It was just a few syllables."

"Where?" asked Hutch amicably.

"Well,... it sounded like Tauser's Pass or... Tower's...Pl..." Gage broke off, trying to remember.

Hutchinson snapped his fingers. "Tower's Plaza?"

"Yeah, that might have been it..." Roy nodded.

"Thanks fellas. We'll get right on it."

Gage stopped Hutch before he turned away again.  
"Uh, who's we? I don't see your partner around here anywhere."

Hutch took his radio out of his pocket and said, "Zebra 3 to Headquarters. We've a lead on the Malone kidnapping. Tell Captain Dobey to call us on our automobile phone in two minutes.  
We're headed to Mary's residence right now. Come on, Starsk, rise and shine..." he said, tickling something on the gurney. "We've a ransom to deliver."

Johnny Gage startled badly when the "body" moved and became Detective Starsky pulling off the sheet in a tangle of bleary panic.

Roy steadied Gage as the two hastily departing detectives ran quickly down the hallway for the ambulance doors. "Easy,  
pal. Don't have a coronary. We've got that dinner bet to collect on, so don't die of fright on me. I don't wanna work that hard."

"D-dd-ddid you see that?" Gage said, breathing fast and pointing down the hall. "Why'd they pretend a body was a sleeping guy like that? What a nasty trick."

Roy shrugged mildly. "I don't think it was a trick. More like an inadvertant crash. I've seen you do it enough times around here."

"What?"

"Nothin. Come on and walk it off. Let's go, I'm getting hungry." DeSoto said,  
thinking about how bad the end of rush hour traffic was going to be and how long their ETA back to base was gonna take. "L.A., Squad 51's available."

##Squad 51.## Spap.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Roy and Johnny at Rampart looking overwhelmed.

Photo: Starsky and Hutch figuring it out.

Photo: Joe Early in close discussion.

Photo: Kel Brackett looking intent.

Photo: Doctors operating on a patient in surgical blue.

*  
From : Cory Anda Sent : Wednesday, December 1, 2004 1:57 PM Subject : Mary's Deal

Starsky and Hutch ran up the stairs leading to Mary Malone's spanish shingle house and to its vine wrapped front door. In their hands, they held a property search warrant, fresh from Captain Dobey's hands. Lock picking the door, they went inside steathily, guns drawn and hugging the walls.

They put them away when they saw that things were completely undisturbed in every room they could see. Together, the two detectives sighed in relief.

"Metford hasn't been here yet." said Hutchinson.

"How could he come around to look for the ransom money?  
He's got a kid in tow. And one who probably isn't very happy about being apart from Mary right now. Besides, Metford still knows he's got every cop in the city looking for him." said Starsky.

Hutch frowned. "There's one thing about this whole affair that really stinks." he said, as he and his partner searched every dresser in each room for anything resembling something that could hold hidden money.

"And what's that, Sherlock?" smiled Starsky.

"If Metford kidnapped Toby on the spur of the moment, how could Mary have had time to make arrangements to have money available on hand to try and get him back so fast? We've all been assuming that attack on her was a first meeting between the two of them." reasoned Hutch, leafing through the stack of mail sitting on Mary's desk for clues.

Starsky didn't like the feeling that washed over him. "A prior relationship of some kind?"

Hutch nodded. "Not necessarily a romantic one. I can't see a college student getting involved with a man Metford's age. He's old enough to be her father. Perhaps she knows him as some shady, obscure family acquaintance?"

"I'll buy that. But if that was true, why didn't she tell us about knowing him,  
when we were there, right up front?"

"She had a head injury Starsky." said Hutch. "I speak from experience that you can't always think clearly having one. I was amazed that Mary could even talk after coming to like that after not having been able to breathe at all."

"She sounded pretty lucid talking to that dark haired paramedic for those few minutes. What was his name again?"

"John Gage." supplied Hutch, moving on to the next room.  
"Let's try looking in the bedroom."

"Ok, Hutch, I'll go along with your line of thinking. So, ....You're saying,  
she changed her tune, once she woke up the rest of the way in that alley, because she wanted to try and handle the situation with Metford on her own. I'll buy that. She was scared for her boy." Starsky surmised. "But then, at the hospital, the seriousness of her condition must've convinced her to change her mind about getting some help with him when she realized that she was heading into surgery. She must've figured out that going under the knife would run over being able to keep Metford's ransom delivery deadline."

"Most likely."

Both detectives stopped when they spied a very masculine black briefcase,  
sitting on a nightstand by the bed that didn't jive with the rest of the floral or child's home decor around them. They rushed over to it and flipped open the lid. Jewels and a large sum of money sparkled up at them.  
"Bingo." said Hutchinson.

Starsky picked up some documents lying next to the case and started reading out loud. "I, Mary Malone, co-signer of the contents of of this safety deposit box, so avow, affirm and agree that I have made this withdrawal in good faith and sound mind...." He looked up at his partner. "Metford coerced her to get her dead grandmother's savings withdrawn."

Hutch had found a notepad next to the phone, written in a curling feminine hand that was also shaky looking with stress. "This says eight o'clock, tonight, Starsky. At Tower's Plaza.. the 1010 Interchange Building." and his face fell into shocked angry lines. "This whole day's turning out so like Metford's usual MO. A targetless shooting spree for kicks to celebrate a heist going his way...."

"He's gonna conclude this deal and then go back into deep hiding again where we'll never find him. We're taking all of this with us! Who's to say Toby won't get on his nerves and get beaten up like Mary did?" Starsky said, shutting the briefcase and snatching up both the bank withdrawal papers and the phone notepad along with the money and jewels.

"No one." said Hutch. "That little boy's still in danger even if it isn't deadly danger."

"We don't have time enough to go to headquarters to get the FBI in on this whole deal. It's 7:10, Hutch."

"We're gonna haveta find time," he said. Then, in a burst of an idea. "I know, we'll make arrangements on the way to the Plaza through Captain Dobey and call all the watch dog units to close on in." agreed Hutch. "Most of those offices in that tower are empty now and unoccupied. It's way after their business closing hours."

"We'll startle Metford out of any target practicing on the streets by calling in the fire department."

The two detectives ran out of the house, secured its front door tightly, and raced for the red Gran Torino as fast as they could in the falling night time darkness.

-  
Photo: Starsky and Hutch on the steet in a night time neighborhood.

Photo: An arrest warrant in close up.

Photo: A briefcase full of money and jewels.

Photo: Starsky and Hutch in their car on the radio at night.

*  
From: Katherine Bird .uk Date: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:50 pm Subject: Ring of Fire

Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage skidded into Station 51's kitchen,  
each doing fair imitations of Bonnie scampering claws on the slippery floor, but with their shoes, in their hurry to get to their plates.

Marco was grumpy, having just finished peeling twenty potatoes to go along with the steaks Kelly had grilled up. "Hey, watch it you guys, you'll scuff up the tiles! I just got done mopping that."

Gage and DeSoto ignored him as they scooted their wooden chairs a little closer to the table and their silverware.

"Ah, I can't wait to sink my teeth into... Sorry for winning the bet, Chet. This looks absolutely fabulous." he said tucking a napkin around his neck.  
"What didya sautee them in?" he said reaching for the steaks platter for a taste of the marinate glistening there.

Chet smacked his fingers. "Shittake mushroom and yellow onion. Mitts off until you get served." he said. "Cap wasn't too pleased about being suckered into the bet. But he did his part. He's got a couple of bowls of salad chilling in the frig."

Johnny looked around, stuffing a dinner roll into his mouth as Kelly forked over two steaks onto the paramedics' blue and white swirled china plates. "Where is he? Usually he'd be here pulling rank on all of us to get the biggest steak."

Mike Stoker looked up from some carrots he was shoving into his mouth as quick as he could. He mumbled. "He's on the phone with somebody named Captain Dobey from the Bay City Police Department. Do you know anything about that?"

Gage and Roy exchanged glances. "A fair amount. That police medical standby call turned into an assault and kidnapping. Our victim was a mother and her four year old son's now missing.  
The cops think he's being held by her attacker."

"Ooo, that's rough. She gonna make it?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah. Rampart was really on the ball today. Her anesthetist was already in the room when we got to the hospital. She's got a head crack that seemed to be just epidural in nature. Easily mended." Roy replied, cutting his steak calmly and chewing on a center piece stabbed onto a fork. "Pass me the pepper, Stoker. Thanks."Johnny was eating so fast that Roy was amazed that he didn't choke. DeSoto frowned a little and tried not to watch.

Johnny added his two cents worth. "The whole run was just plain weird, guys. Bullet casings lying around us like scattered acorns. Cops running around everywhere. Our two detectives' car had its windshield shot through with a couple of bullet holes. "

Marco's eyes got real big. "We're you in danger?"

"Nah. It was over by the time we got there." Roy reassured Lopez.

"The shorter cop reminded me a lot of you, Chet. Complete with moppy hair and tennis shoes." Gage interjected.

"No kidding..." Kelly said with feigned interest. "Didn't know I had a twin out there. What'd he do for you guys?"

"He got our lady breathing again. She'd been choked and thrown too hard onto some concrete. Starsky did pretty well considering the fact that he thought he shot her with his gun the whole time he and his partner were helping her out."

Stoker chuckled. "Starsky. What kind of name is that?"

"It's probably Jewish." Marco guessed.

"Probably. His taller partner was named Hutch." Roy nodded reflectively.

"As in a piece of furniture?" Chet laughed, stuffing a pile of potatoes into his mouth.

"I think it was a nickname." Roy said. "But I sure appreciate them both and what they do for a living. They ran escort for us on the way in and played chicken with a train to slow it down long enough for the squad and ambulance to get over the tracks before the gates came down."

"Now that took guts." Gage agreed. "They seem like a real crazy pair of partners. Funky and impulsive."

"Kinda like the pair of partners sitting in front of me right now, huh?" Chet quipped.

Johnny nailed Kelly in the shoulder with a towel. "I meant that in a good sense."

"So did I." Chet said, mildly, tossing the kitchen towel right back at him. The whole thing turned into a tossing war between the two,  
until Cap's entry into the room, suddenly ended it.

Nonetheless, Cap's eyes had missed nothing. Hank hurried to his chair and sat down. "No horseplay at the table, you two. You know the rules."

"Not unless you can get away with it.." Chet said under his breath to the others.

Cap was too busy filling his plate with food to notice him.

Hank ate half his steak, before he flipped open a file filled with hand written notes that he had hastily scrawled onto a blank log sheet. "Johnny.  
Roy. Gang. We're all on special duty for the rest of the day. Apparently there's a man hunt going on downtown for some nut case the cops want real bad. They think they've cornered him in a high rise office building somewhere near Tower's Plaza and we're gonna be part of a fire back up response crew in case any tear gas's needed."

"That's probably our kidnapper.." Johnny snorted, chewing his third dinner roll loudly.

"What?" Hank asked.

"Nothing, Cap. When do we move into position?" Roy wanted to know.

"They'll call us just as soon as they get a bead on their perpetrator. He could be anywhere inside that building. And sixty stories is a lot of ground to cover manually. We'll probably make it through dinner."

"Knowing the pace our two detectives like to work at, better hurry up with your steaks everybody. We're bound to be called out sooner than you'd think.." Roy warned.

The tones went off.

All the firemen stood bent over their food and they shovelled in a few last hasty cheekfuls, before they fled for the vehicle bay and their trucks.

##Station 51. Truck 99. Foam 127. Battalion 14. L.A. and Bay City Police request a non code R multiple station response to 1010 Tower Plaza Drive. Cross street Interchange Blvd. 1010 Tower Plaza Drive. Cross street Interchange Blvd. Time out: 19:12.##

"10-4, Station 51, KMG 365." said Cap into the alcove mic.

They rolled out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: A steak dinner.

Photo: Gage with his feet up on the kitchen table.

Photo: A police MO file on a suspect.

Photo: Starsky and Hutch reading and investigating at their office.

Photo: Captain Dobey, Starsky and Hutch's superior,  
looking stressed and angry.

*  
From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 11:34:03 -0800 (PST) Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Conference Scene Shots I - V...

Starsky and Hutch beat the responding fire departments to the Plaza Tower. They pulled up well away from the police barricades surrounding the one block radius around the skyscraper and both detectives got out with the Malone ransom and the two evidence documents and soon met up with the central police command trailer sprouting antennaes and hastily wired telephone lines snaking up to the telephone pole next to it.

They flashed their badges to the uniformed cop guarding the command post's door and went inside. Once there, they met the rotound, dark skinned Captain Dobey, seated at a small cramped camper table, across from a very familiar figure that they all knew very well. It was Huggy Bear.

Without ceremony, Hutch threw the case down in front of the two of them and flipped it open. The street wise African American informant's eyes got real big at the sight of all the riches. "Whooo wee, Hutch! What cat did you knock off to procure these shiny baubles and greenbacks?"

Starsky, out of impatience, grabbed the front of Huggy's threads.  
"These came from the dead grandmother of one very frightened young mother whose child's is now in very grave danger up in that skyscraper right outside, Huggy. Now tell us what advance knowledge you know about his kidnapping! You'd better have a very good reason why you didn't tell us about it before Metford went on his little shotgun, joy riding foray this afternoon or I'll--"

Captain Dobey reached out and yelled right back. "Starsky! Let go of him! He knew nothing until he saw Metford dragging Toby by the arm past his night club down the street, twenty minutes ago. His involvement in it this time, is as a first hand witness only. Lay off! Now! .....or I'lI LET him press charges of illegal harrassment AGAINST you."

Starsky's face fell from crafted fake rage into one of grinning apology.  
"Oh. Sorry, Hug. I'm a little worked up right now." And he let the street toady go.

"That I can tell." Huggy Bear said, straightening up his stylish flashy outfit. "No hard feelings, man. I'm just as mad at that dude as you are.  
He's way uncool. Captain Dobey was kind enough to fill me in and I'm kind enough to offer my services with the next stage of the game already scoped out!" he said proudly.

"Services? Doing what?" Hutch asked, leaning back to let a uniformed officer by him as a phone rang up in front of the command trailer.

"I'm your delivery man who'll go to Metford,.." soothed Huggy. " with these..." and he slid over the briefcase full of riches closer to where he sat, licking his lips in anticipation and reaching for its contents.

Starsky slammed down the lid of the case forcefully, making Huggy yelp and yank both of his hands back in alarm. "Ok, I consider myself ordered to go along with this entire, absolutely ridiculous charade, Captain. But you,..." and he whipped up a finger in front of Huggy's nose, ".. don't haveta go fondling the goods unnecessarily. It hasn't been counted yet." And he cooly passed the case off to an FBI type whose job it was to do just that.

"Don't you trust me, Starsky? They all do.." Huggy gestured at the rest of the fuzz milling about inside the trailer.

The panting and exhausted detective, said nothing. Then.  
"Cap, I assume you're gonna wire him." Starsky said, not breaking off his angry eye contact with the naturally fidgety street informant.

"Not a chance, Starsky. Metford'll be onto that angle in an instant. He's not your average unintelligent city joe. I was thinking of using all those firemen coming to pretend a precautionary fire evac to throw him off long enough for you two to get a bead on him anyway you can. Both of you are gonna be dressed up just like them, going along. And Huggy here can be the panicky witness who spotted the smoky room in the building."

"What?!" Hutch said. "Cap, that's ludicrous! There's no way in h*ll Starsky and I can pull off acting like real firemen!"

"And why the h*ll not?" snapped Dobey. "That fire captain of theirs said that you four got along real chummy like while you cared for Mary, just like you were the best of friends. Why won't it work? They can coach you on what to do while you hike it on up there to the thirty fourth floor." he roared, pointing to the ceiling.

Starsky quieted instantly, and blinked. "T-T-To the thirty fourth floor?! On foot!? Whatever for?"

"Because we've been receiving threats from Metford from a phone line coming from up there that's defying any closer trace and because during a fire evacuation, elevators are never turned on for public use. You're gonna haveta keep up the proper appearances!" roared Dobey.  
"Man, I'm roasting in here. You there! Yes, you! Bring me a desk fan A.S.A.P in five minutes or consider yourself demoted!" he shouted to a very very young police cadet to instill a fear of compliance into him.

"Yes sir!" and the young cop fled clumsily for the supply truck outside.

"Cap..." said Hutch.

"What?!"

"You can't demote a cadet. They're already the lowest ranking police officer you can have."

"It worked didn't it? Just shut up and let me finish getting you up to speed here." and he mopped his overheated chubby face. "Any questions before you guys go outside and meet Captain Stanley?  
And I do mean questions! Not complaints!"

"Aww, Cap, we've been up for over forty six hours. Straight!" groaned Starsky. "I'm never gonna survive climbing up that many flights of stairs wearing an oxygen bottle."

"That's air bottle, Starsk. SCBA tanks are always full of just air." Hutch whispered sotto voce.

"I don't care, Hutch. I'm gonna need oxygen if you two make me do that. I'm tired. I'm worse than tired. If I climb those stairs in all that turnout gear I'm gonna hurl worse than your sickest smelliest curbside wino! I'll die, sure as sh--" the curly haired partner protested. But he was cut off by a move that made his vision swim.

Huggy had grabbed Starsky's leather jacket and he hauled the detective a little closer to his taller, sweating face. "Think of that poor little kid, Starsk. He needs ALL of us right now to guarantee his very survival. And very badly, I might add. Now will you go along with us?"

Starsky froze defensively, resisting ripping the hands off of his lapels. Then he smiled wanly. "How can I refuse, Huggy? You ask so nicely. " he said sarcastically. "Ok, Hutch. Let's go." and he checked his weapon to see if it was still fully loaded.

-  
Starsky squared his shoulders as he and his partner walked bravely over to the fire engine numbered 51. "Which one is the captain, Hutch? I feel ridiculous..." he said, shoving up his helmet once again so that it didn't flop down into his eyes.

"The Batallion Chief said that Captain Stanley would have a skunk stripe on his helmet." said Hutch, still trying to figure out how to rig his gun holster underneath the tan fire turnout he wore over his usual clothes.

"Skunk stripe? What the h*ll is a skunk stripe?" Starsky grumbled.

Hutch pointed as a tall man in fire gear came striding over along with Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto. "I believe that would be it.." Hutch said with amusement.

"Oh. So that's a skunk stripe.." mumbled Starsky, eyeballing the bright white crest on top of the black plastic of Stanley's helmet. It was glowing under the street light. "You do all the talking. I don't feel like chatting right now. Maybe later. I gotta conserve my strength for the big climb." he snapped.

Hutch frowned at Starsky and rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Captain Stanley?" introduced Hutch as four firemen left the side of one fire truck and started moving in their direction. "I'm Ken Hutchinson and this is David Starsky. We're the detectives Captain Dobey spoke to you about concerning the storming operation that we're gonna do into the Plaza building....."

"Oh, yes. Hello." and Hank pulled his gloves off to shake both detectives' hands warmly. "I hope that anything the Los Angeles County Fire Department can do tonight will be good enough to get that young woman's boy down safe. I believe you already know paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto."

"We remember." said Hutch, smiling.

"How can we forget...?" whispered Starsky, complaining.

Hutch jabbed his partner in the ribs sharply.

"Your Captain Dobey has already briefed them on the situation and what they're gonna to do up there during the ransom delivery. They know to keep out of sight if and when bullets begin to fly."  
said Hank. "We're good at duck and covering." he joked.

Neither detective caught the humor in it.

"Eh. Hmmm." Hank cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Shall we get the show on the road?" smiled Hutch for both himself and his mute partner. "First, did we get these SCBA bottles things on right? Could you check em out? Can't say my partner and I have ever had the pleasure of wearing anything like these in the past."

"Oh, that's easy. Here." said Chet Kelly, moving on around Starsky and jerking on the straps animatedly to test their attachments.  
He goosed Starsky with the two leg straps, accidently.

"Hey! Careful.." said Starsky, grabbing his crotch.

"Now those two are in the wrong place, Mr. Starsky." said Kelly to his curly haired companion, shaking his head. "Want me to redo em?"

"No..no..no.. I'll handle it. I got em.. Just ....show me how you did yours on you, Mr..."

"...Kelly. But call me, Chet. Please." said the fireman cheerfully. He was the same height as Starsky. "Glad we're gonna be working together. Don't worry about a thing. You're always gonna be safe with a crew of firefighters workin with ya. Here, this is how I did mine."

"Ok,..Chet.. I think I got it." said Starsky tightly, making the corrections.

Eventually, the two detectives were geared up properly with a few adjustments to their outer coats so that they'd be able to reach their guns easily in an instant's notice.

Mike Stoker showed them a fast run down on how to hold coiled hose on a shoulder for stairclimbing, with one side of the loop bunches slung over the air bottle tank's top, above their helmets.

Captain Stanley handed the two detectives a couple of fire HTs. "Use these to contact any of my men. They're set to the frequency our engine operates on and I'll be listening, too. Your captain says he'll be tapped in as well,  
monitoring, from the FBI trailer."

Gage noticed Starsky's tired condition. He leaned over to Roy while testing his air mask for show for Metford in case he was watching from far above.  
"You know, I think we're gonna haveta shoulder carry the short guy the rest of the way up before we get to the tenth floor, Roy."

Roy watched the smaller detective shake his head to rid it of mental cobwebs.  
"We can always give him a couple of shots of O2 so he can make it to the top. We will be carrying our medical gear with us for when we find the boy."

"That's gonna slow us down some." Johnny sighed.

"Not by much. There's a lot to be said about honor between departments.  
Looks like the boys in blue are gonna have to muscle up to the men in brown.  
He'll last, all right, probably without us even interfering."

"I hope you're right, pal. You trail behind Starsky. I'll keep an eye on Hutch. He looks the stronger of the two and seems like he'll be easier to manage." Johnny said. "Oh, by the way, ya got those fake smoke canisters handy for when we get up there?"

"Yeah. I showed Huggy Bear how to light one off, too. In case we're still separated when he flushes out Metford with the briefcase." said Roy. "He's the one over there dressed like a business executive holding the ransom payment."

Soon, Johnny, Chet, Roy, Starsky and Hutch along with Huggy Bear, were climbing up the stairs of the west side of the Tower Plaza Building following a loud, bold announcement that Batallion Fourteen gave over the megaphone, as he would've done to any evacuating sky scraper population. It was their cue to go.

-  
By floor twenty two, Detective Starsky was weaving, and Roy DeSoto had both hands fully against his back, pushing him up stair by stair.

Gage was losing patience. "Detective Starsky. We can always rest ya know. It's only twenty til." he told the dark haired policeman. "A minute either way isn't gonna kill us."

Starsky could only puff. ".....* pant * ..I'm.. * pant*... fine... *gasp* In fact, .....I even think I'm ...* cough* ..waking up a little.." he said, pausing at the top of a landing.

Chet just grinned, "Ok.. but keep in mind that we firemen do snort oxygen from time to time in real life for a stair climb. There's no shame in doing it. Here. Gimme your hose. Just hand it on over. I'll carry it up the last twelve stories for ya."

"No. *gasp*" said Starsky.

Hutch grabbed Starsky's other glove and he started hauling. "Sorry he's so stubborn. It's what makes him a better than average cop."

"Please, don't apologize. My partner Johnny here tells Captain Stanley exactly the same thing all the time about being a paramedic." chuckled Roy.

At the next flat landing, Starsky eyeballed Huggy Bear, still bounding stairs easily ahead of him. "How come you're not dragging your ever lovin rear like I am?"

"I dance. A lot. How else can a night club owner impress all the ladies?"

Hutch and the three firemen laughed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A sharp burst of static from the handy talkies in all their gloves,  
arrested them. It was Hank Stanley. ##Engine 51 to Squad 51.  
Condition Red! A bomb threat's just been made by Metford! And the FBI says that he has the know how necessary in order to make and set one. Use the utmost caution and your elevator keys if and when you have to get out of there in a hurry. Whatever you do, don't make a descent. Go up towards the roof! Metford claims it'll go off if you're late even five minutes. The call came from the same general area as the others.##

"Oh boy.." sighed Chet Kelly. "Where is it?" he asked fearfully.

"Isn't it obvious?" Johnny said to him. "Somewhere between the ground floor and Metford's hideaway on the 34th floor. You sorry you decided to come with us, Chet?"

"I wouldn't miss out on all this for the world." he interjected sarcastically. But he was grinning.

Starsky at once pulled himself together. "34, let's see.  
That's one floor above us. Ok, Huggy. Go out here and get into an elevator. Use your fire key to reactivate it. Take it up one to floor 34. And for Pete's sake, keep your hands out in the open. Keep talking until Metford hears you. See if you can find out where the boy is. Remember Metford likes to bully more than he likes to kill. He's usually all bluff."

"That's small comfort. Psychopaths are always crazy." Huggy said.

"Go." said Hutch. "Send the elevator back down to our floor if you spot him or back down to the ground floor if you don't. We'll wait here for your signal after we set off the smoke canisters. Make mention that you smell smoke clearly."

"Got it."

"Time?" said Starsky. "Set your watch, Huggy."

All three firemen looked at their watches and said. "7:52 pm."

"Ok, go!" said Hutch.

Chet Kelly and Johnny Gage started setting up their hoses and attaching them to the one coiled near a water valve behind glass in the stairwell. They did everything but prime it.

The firemen gathered behind Hutch and Starsky as the two detectives drew out their weapons and entered the darkened floor on 33. "Ok, it's clear."  
said Hutch, waving everyone else on in.

Chet launched a smoke canister right under an air vent, putting on his mask and motioning for the others to do the same. Then the five of them moved into clear air, watching the indicator on the elevator to see where it stopped.

The doors opened on their floor. Getting a ladder from a closet, Gage set it up near another ceiling vent where loud conversation could be heard through it from Huggy and unmistakably, another man who was growing desperate. The talking went on for several tense seconds.

"Now I delivered the money and jewels in good faith. I owe it to Mary to get her son back. She's my dearest friend, Metford. Where's the boy?!" said Huggy.

"Stay right there, company man." snarled Metford. "I have the controls to the bomb right here so no funny business!"

"I'm unarmed. See? I just want to see the boy."

"The boy's safe. He's only a few rooms from here. Go get him and bring him back here."

"Where? There must be at least two dozen doors in this hallway alone."

"Then you're gonna haveta search for him in a hurry. You've only got six minutes until we both go out in a blaze of glory, money man. Make the best of it."

"I'm telling you, I smell smoke. I was wondering why the fire department was here." Huggy said. "We don't have time for this. Look." and he pointed to where smoke was billowing out of a floor vent at their feet. "The fire's all around us now. We have to find the firemen coming our way to get out of here safely."

"To each his own destiny...." said Metford. He set down the bomb's control box,  
after activating a peculiar set of switches on its face, onto the carpetting at their feet. And then he fled into a stairwell that wasn't the one the others were hiding in. Huggy couldn't tell if the criminal had gone up or down. He didn't really care at that point. It was the farthest thing from his mind.

The thin black man snatched out an HT from his suit pocket and he started yelling. "Starsky! Hutch! We've got trouble! Metford's gone, but the bomb box isn't. He says the boy's on my floor!"

The stairwell door burst open and Huggy barely shoved Hutch out of the way before his fire booted foot stepped on the bomb controller. Chet Kelly stood by while Starsky and Hutch pulled off their air masks and knelt down by the red glowing device. "It's count down says twenty minutes to zero." said Hutch.

"No problem. We'll get the boy and clear out using one of these highspeed elevators." smiled Starsky. "Piece of cake." Then he dashed off after Johnny and Roy to go kick down a few doors to locate Toby.

Hutch whipped up his talkie. "Captains Stanley and Dobey. We found the bomb's controller. It shows T- minus nineteen minutes. It's a touch trigger.  
Metford's gone with the money to somewhere else in the building..."  
his voice trailed off when the power suddenly went off.

##We copy you. Have you found the boy yet?## replied Stanley.

"Oh, brother.." said Chet in the pitch blackness. "Now we know where he went. The generator room." He strode over to the wall map, carefully overstepping the countdown device, and read its index by handlight. "He's two floors below us."

Hutch got right back on the radio."Negative, 51 and Command. We've a problem. We've just lost all our electrical power. And we can't tell how many floors this effects."

##All of them, detective. The entire building's just gone dark.## said an unfamiliar voice from the FBI's end of the frequency.

There was a pause and then came a tight shout from Captain Stanley.  
##Tell my men up there to get out their elevator brakes! They know how to raise an elevator car up manually. You all can get to the roof an--##

##Belay that Hutch! It'll take too long.## came Dobey's equally concerned voice. ##When you find the boy, run! To a window! We've got a police chopper on the way that you can jump into using ropes..##

The banging doors kept on moving down the pitch black hallway.  
Then a shout. "I found him!" said Roy. "He's alive!"

The others saw the paramedic's wavering flashlight as he and Johnny and Starsky ran back to the elevator lobby area. Roy was carefully carrying the boy in his arms. "He's pretty dehydrated. We found him on an overturned mattress under a blanket in an office." he said.

Johnny snatched out a pen and checked his eyes.  
"This's just a faint. He'll maintain ok without an oral."

"Ok, let's get going then.." said the two detectives. They went in one direction and the firemen went into an elevator.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute! What are we doing here?!" asked Starsky. "We can't split up."

All of their flashlights lit up the lobby in eerie black and white shadows.

"Detectives. I strongly urge you to come with us. In fact, I'll tie you up if I have to." said Johnny Gage seriously. "The elevator car will give us some protection if that bomb goes off. Being near that window at the end of the hall's sheer craziness. A chopper pilot won't be able to carry away all of us."

"You're right." said the dark haired detective and he bent over offering up his laced fingers for a boost so someone could reach the car's roof access panel above their heads.

Hutch set his watch to match the timer on the bomb control and then he and Chet manually shoved the elevator doors shut with their hands.

Roy crouched on the floor and monitored the boy.

Gage got to the top and reached down to pull up Starsky and then Hutch into the elevator's shaft to the pulley jimmey there. "Here. This halligan fits here. We'll take turns."

"Up or down?" asked Starsky, pulling his fire helmet a little tighter over his head.

"Up. Because explosion debris always falls." decided Johnny."My captain was right about trying for the roof. Put your air masks on.  
And detective keep giving us a countdown! If it gets too close we'll leap back in and cover up with the rest of ya." he told Roy and Chet.  
"How's he doing?" he asked about Toby.

"He's breathing fine." said DeSoto, holding an oxygen mask over the boy's pale face. "There's no signs of bleeding or trauma. I'll wait on getting vitals for obvious reasons."

"Kinda figured that." said Gage with a grunt as he and the two detectives worked to raise the car, foot by foot with their jimmeying.

"T-minus fifteen and seven seconds." said Hutch with a glance at his watch in the torchlight coming from inside the elevator.

They were nearing the fifty first floor and passing it, when their time ran out.

A muffled BOOM shook the shaft around them.

"Here it comes!" shouted Gage, "I sure hope that brake holds! Everybody, hang on!"

Starsky, Hutch, Chet, Roy and Johnny all huddled on the floor of the elevator car cradling the boy and watched as the ceiling panel above them puffed in with displacing air as the fire created by the bomb, roared up the elevator shaft to meet them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the street, onlookers startled as the thirty fourth floor of the Plaza Tower disintegrated in a ringing nimbus of fire. All the windows of that story blew out in an explosive rain of glass and debris. The police helicopter, still waiting by a window, hastily banked away to safety.

"Holy, mother of---!" shouted Batallion Fourteen. "Get back!  
Everybody, get back!"

Fire crews had already been prepared and had taken cover.

Captain Stanley immediately got on the walkie talkie.  
"Engine 51 to Squad 51, what's your status?" he said into the live channel. Static met his transmission. He waited agonizing seconds, before hailing again. Still, nothing came.

Looking up, the firefighters heard a muffled hissing begin from every shattered window over the flames.

The building's internal water sprinklers kicked in, quickly snuffing out the flames as they were designed to do and kept on pouring water by the hundreds of gallons per second. They would keep on showering until the floor's internal heat sensors, registering points in the red for high internal temperatures, gave out an all clear and cease order.

Metford lost the race to get the master generator restarted on the thirty second floor. His plan to ride an elevator down using Huggy Bear's fire access key, wasn't even a faintly possible option.

He went running, passing by some exterior windows, when a rush of air and fire coming down the stairwell he had used, simply expelled him out of the building in a ball of fire. He was dead before he hit the ground by the lush courtyard fountain.

The ransom briefcase fared better, it bounced on the carpetting as it was dropped and it rolled to a stop under a desk as the fire suppression system activated around it, putting out the flames in the room. It remained dry and sealed tight.

"Engine 51 to Squad 51, do you read?" came Cap's quiet, urgent voice.

Dobey and the agents in the trailer remained silent on their end, letting the fire department take a lead over the air waves, trying to reach the group in the elevator car.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The elevator car shuddered, throwing the three firemen and two detectives and Huggy back down onto their hands and knees. The brake above them squealed and sharp, frightening metallic pings and snaps echoed above them as the ascension cable unfrayed and gave way. It parted in two, tangling around the pulley block they had been using to rise. The car dropped ten feet in free fall, then caught against the passive wall brakes on either side of the elevator shaft's track grooves.

"What was that?!" shouted Starsky through his air mask.

"One of the cables gave way! I think it was the lifter! Stay down!" shouted Roy through his.

The elevator car groaned in tortured metal and started a slipping, jerky descent as its mass surrendered to gravity. It dropped, plummeting a few feet, and then it would catch again on the brakes long enough to lose some dangerous momentum. Sitting up proved to be impossible without everyone getting jarred.

Hutch managed to lift an HT to his faceplate. "Engine 51, we're falling!  
The emergency brakes aren't catching smoothly. We're in elevator number three!"

Johnny saw an orange glow through the cracks of the jilted metal doors.  
"Here comes the 34th again. Cover Toby against the heat!" he shouted in painful whistling gasps around his air regulator.

Sparks flew through the top of the roof access panel as the tangle of steel from the parted cabling melted with friction and grew brittle.  
Pieces of it flew apart and their fall speed suddenly increased, carrying them safely by the burning, hissing floor and beyond it.

Roy let out the breath he was holding. He had been afraid that the elevator shaft would be warped on that floor, trapping the car in the middle of fire. He reported in over his radio. "We're still sliding. Below the thirty fourth! Still somewhat controlled by the braking system we set manually! Our fall speed's about a quarter floor a second!"

## 10-4! We're on our way to the basement to get you out!## yelled a relieved Captain Stanley. ##Injuries?!##

"None so far.." shouted Johnny into his own HT. "A little rough going.  
We'll see you at the bottom..." he joked tightly.

"We're dead.. we're dead!" Huggy gasped, in a whisper, through his air bottle's faceplate.

"Not yet we aren't." said Hutch, trying to smile through his.

"We're good at elevator ditching. We aren't going to die."  
promised Gage, patting the soaked street informant on a shoulder.  
"Just keep your helmet on."

The firemen were caught unprepared by the amount of water pouring in from the bombed floor's level. It gushed on top of the car and into it rapidly. It also made the emergency brakes clenched in the car's tracks, steam angrily.

Hutch coughed, even though his face was protected from the deluge.  
"Where'd all this come from?"

"Be glad its there.." said Roy as he clung to the boy's head, shielding it from the wet raining water cascading around them. "That water kept us from frying on the 34th."

"It's the sprinklers, They've kicked in. We're getting inundated because they're designed to drain their discharged water into all the elevator shafts to minimize water damage." Johnny told him.

"Isn't this a very large amount coming in?" Starsky asked them.

Neither firemen answered right away. Then Roy said, "A little bit.."  
he shrugged, trying to calm the detective.

"What happens if we don't stop on the street level?" asked Hutch.

"We'll fall into the sub basement and into the impact cushions there."  
Gage answered.

"That doesn't sound very comforting, does it Hutch? I guess we'll get to find out what the preverbial sudden stop feels like after a freefall." joked Starsky morbidly.

"What if all that's underwater, my man?" Huggy Bear asked quickly, still hanging one hand onto the grip bar above his head and the other over his air mask.

"Then we swim." Gage replied. "Don't worry. We're good at that, too."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bubbles. And a deep penetrating cold, with a bitter taste of crude oil.  
That's all Starsky felt and knew after a numbing jolt slammed him to the floor of the elevator car. He flailed and swam about blindly as he tried to hold his breath far past the point of consciousness.

But then he blacked out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did ya find him?" shouted Roy from where he clung to the side of the flooded elevator shaft. Toby was awake and floated easily in his arms. Huggy Bear was holding a dazed and wounded Hutch in his grip, keeping his face above water as the blond haired man tried to come to.

"Not yet..." said Chet Kelly and then he dove once more under the surface of the water. Johnny Gage did one better and entered the flooded car going all the way to the carpetted floor, sweeping around with his arms. But he found just their abandoned air bottle tanks which knocked painfully against his fingers. His head hit the squad's medical gear boxes floating near the roof, more than once.

Gage exited the submersed car, breaking the water's surface in a gasp.

"My turn again." said Chet Kelly. "I'll check inside the track grooves next. Gimme your flashlight! Mine shorted out."

Johnny handed it off as he swam to a shaft wall where they all floated, almost at ground level. He could hear banging as fire crews started to force open the elevator doors above them and a deep part of him wished that they could do more than just bang on a pipe back at them for a current status report.

Chet took in a huge breath and went under. Seconds later, he found Starsky's blue striped Adidas shoes sticking out of a dead end service door that had opened for him into a tiny room that had unfortunately been flooded completely with sprinkler runoff. He grabbed the unconscious detective's waist and shoved him up into the air as high as he could over his head, so the others would see him. Then he kicked for the surface.

"There!" shouted Huggy. "Right there!"

"Where? I don't see anything.." Gage coughed and shivered.

"Right there. In the very middle!" said Huggy Bear.

"To your nine o'clock, Johnny!" shouted Roy.

Johnny spun around in a circle, treading water until he saw Starsky's head breaking the top of the water where Chet had pushed it. Starsky flopped face down into the water for only a moment as Kelly swam himself up to the air. His pair of hands righted the detective's slack face and lifted it onto a firm shoulder and at the same time, he tipped Starsky's head back.

Johnny swam over to help. "Is he alive?"

Chet spat out water in a half nod. "But obstructed! I got nothing in down there."

"Want me to--"

"Yes!"

"Watch him!" Johnny ordered. Gage reached around and began modified heimlich abdominal thrusts, with his arms wrapped around Starsky's waist, pushing up in sharp forceful movements.

Kelly continued to hold the detective's head backwards over Gage's shoulder until a gush of water spurted out of his mouth. Then he attempted a breath, mouth to nose. It went in with an abundant chest rise.

"Keep going!" Johnny told him as he swam both of them to a wall where a narrow beam made a ledged surface. They heaved the rag dolled Starsky up onto it as fast as they could onto his back. They began freeing up his chest out of the fire turnout and shirt, when Johnny thought of something important.  
"Hold it! Hold it. Not so fast. Let me get rid of this."  
And Gage drew out and tossed away Starsky's 9mm. It sank with a splash.

"How is he?" shouted Huggy from the other side of the shaft.

They didn't answer him.

Roy did. "He's drowning. But they're clearing him out and he's got a pulse."

Chet had given Starsky another two breaths more, when water poured out of his mouth. It was followed by a weak bout of coughing. Together the two firemen rolled the shuddering policeman onto his side to drain and they let him vomit up all the water he had swallowed. The effort woke the chilled detective up the rest of the way.

"Easy, man. You're gonna be fine.." mumbled Chet. "Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked as Starsky tried to struggle up into a sitting position. He couldn't control his muscles. Gage and Kelly helped him up the rest of the way and held him against the wall firmly, so he could breathe more effectively.

"* cough* ....no.... *groan* ..Hutch?"

"He's waking up with just a few scratches." answered Kelly.

Starsky leaned over and started coughing violently. "I don't feel so good. What was it Charlie the Tuna said on all those TV commercials?...Chicken of th--- *choke*.. That's me, .  
oooh..hh. I hate.. the water. Now I know why Mama told me to take a land job."

"Just relax. Breathe deeper breaths and that shortness you're feeling will go away faster. We'll be outta here in a few minutes. A stokes crew's right above us." said Johnny. "Huggy, why don't you swim Hutch over here. " the paramedic said, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Sure thing, bro." said the street man.

"....then I can check them both out a little better. Kelly, keep the detective upright even if he passes out again. He can't sit up on his own, he's too cold now."

"I got him." said Chet, hauling himself out of the water next to Starsky where he could keep monitoring his pulse at the wrist.  
He wrapped an arm around the policeman's shoulders and he set the groggy man's head onto his shoulder. "It's all right. Sleep if you have to, man. I promise you'll wake up in a nice warm..--"

Starsky drifted, feeling supported and off danger's hook.

The last thing he saw was Hutch's scuffed face staring back at him.

-  
"I believe this, is yours, little lady.." smiled Detective Starsky at Mary Malone from where she lay on the hospital bed.

Her son Toby sat curled up in her lap and his eyes got real big when he saw all the money and jewels that were piled inside the smoke stinking briefcase. "What's that, mommy?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, where did you find it?" Mary sighed, running loving hands over a particularly old but lovely brooch.

"I didn't find your grandmother's heirlooms. The coworkers of these three fine gentlemen to my left, found it." said the curly haired policeman from his outpatient wheelchair. "I just thought I'd do another good deed on my way out. I'm just the messenger. Captain Dobey ran your briefcase here from Headquarters in a squad car as soon as he could swing the paperwork."

"Oh, how can I ever thank you?" Mary said, hugging Toby and smiling up at the plain clothed firefighters. "Now I'll have enough to pay for our medical bills."

Hutch, from the next hospital bed, cleared his throat. "What medical bills, Mary? The guys on the force...."

"...and at all the stations...." added Johnny Gage..

"....gathered up some donations after they'd heard your story and we kind of sorta ...paid for everything.." finished Starsky, grinning from ear to ear.

Mary started sobbing, holding her bandaged head.

"Ooo, sorry..." said Johnny, almost reaching out to steady her. "I know that still hurts."

"I'm not in pain. I'm h-happy.." she said tearfully.

Johnny, Roy, Chet, Starsky, and Hutch, took to blushing in abject humility under the power of her beautiful smile.

END Episode Sixteen, Devil's Due..

FIN TV Series Crossover Special One

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